Crossing Fine Lines
by ThirteenLemons
Summary: Elena Gilbert and Damon Salvatore really don't like each other. So when they get paired together as lab partners for a whole year, they have to learn to get along. As they grow closer, feelings between them begin to change and they may just cross the line between hate and love… AU/AH.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer - I don't own the vampire diaries or any of it's characters.**

I slam my hand on the snooze button of my alarm clock for the third time this morning. I'm just not ready to go back to school. I've had the most amazing summer and I'm not ready for that to end – Even if it is senior year.

I snuggle back under the covers on my bed and close my eyes to try and get 5 more minutes of sleep before I absolutely have to wake up.

After what feels like a few minutes, I roll over to look at the clock and my eyes bulge out of my head when I notice the time. _I fell back asleep for 40 minutes!_

I jump up from the bed and quickly rush around my room trying to get dressed. I tie my hair up on top of my head in a messy bun and add minimal make-up before brushing my teeth and pulling out the first clothes I spot in my closet.

"Jeremy." I rush into my little brothers room to make sure that he's awake and find him sat on the edge of his bed, dressed and ready to go. "You ready?"

"Yeah." My brother nods quietly and grabs his school bag before following me down the stairs. My little brother was diagnosed with autism at the age of 4 and it hit everyone in my family hard. Jeremy has trouble making friends and as a result, doesn't really have any – not his own age anyway. 7 year old Harry next door doesn't really count as my 16 year old brother's friend. He sometimes gets bullied at school by the sick bastards who don't have anything better to do, but he doesn't seem to care too much.

As we set foot downstairs, I spot my mother passed out on the couch with her perfectly manicured fingers still wrapped around a wine bottle. This has become a very familiar sight these past few months. Ever since my dad left with another woman, my mom has used alcohol to keep her company.

"Close your eyes Jere." I whisper to my little brother who takes my hand and closes his eyes while we walk past our mother and out the front door.

"Have you got everything?" I ask Jeremy once we get into my car and he checks his bag twice before saying a quiet yes. Jeremy doesn't really talk a lot. He never has. He talks to me and a few of my friends that he knows well but other than that, he doesn't say much.

"Are you excited to be a junior?"

Jeremy shrugs his shoulders and looks out on to the road, not making eye contact with me. Another thing that Jeremy doesn't do a lot is make eye contact with people. He once told me that looking in other people's eyes make him feel uncomfortable. I'm used to talking to him while he looks down at his hands or the wall behind me.

We pull up at the school parking lot a few minutes later and I turn the radio off before getting out of my car.

"Elena Gilbert!" My best friend Caroline Forbes shouts excitedly to me across the school parking lot and a few people I don't know turn their heads to look at who the crazy loud girl is shouting to. Caroline runs over to me and hugs me tightly.

"We're freaking seniors Lae!" She giggles and pulls away.

"Really? I never knew that?" I roll my eyes at Caroline and she smacks my arm lightly before turning to face Jeremy.

"Hey Jer."

"Hi Caroline." Jeremy greets Caroline but looks down at the floor and rubs his foot into the floor a few times.

Caroline goes to say something else to Jeremy but looks behind him and groans instead.

"Urgh, Damon is back for another year then."

I follow her gaze and spot Damon Salvatore exiting his blue Camaro and sliding into his infamous leather jacket before walking into school. Damon Salvatore and his group of friends are the school _badass's. _By that I mean that they are kind of a gang who create trouble and try to act big and tough. Damon has done some pretty horrible things. He's beaten people up, set things on fire, stolen cars and money and even broke into the school to steal the answers to the SAT's back in junior year. He has nearly every girl he meets swooning over him – but not me. I personally think that Damon Salvatore is a first rate jackass.

"Why is he even here? It's not like he actually goes to class?" I mumble to Caroline and she shrugs.

"I don't know but speaking of class, we better go or we're going to be late on the first day of SENIOR YEAR BABY!" She yells and I laugh.

Jeremy, Caroline and I walk into school together and I say my goodbyes to them before walking to my first class of the day – Chemistry.

"Good morning seniors." Our chemistry teacher Mrs Wilson greets the class in a happy tone. She turns around to face her desk and picks up a piece of paper. "Now, I've already paired everyone up with a lab partner. This person will be your partner until you graduate, so if you don't like it, suck it up." _Wow, she really doesn't mess around._

She begins reading names off a list and people begin to move around the room so lab partners are able to sit together. _I wonder if Jeremy is okay?_ I always worry about my brother when he's in school. As I'm a year older than him, we don't share any of the same classes so I can't keep an eye on him. I know it's stupid to worry about my sixteen year old brother, but I do.

"Elena Gilbert." Mrs Wilson gets to my name on the list and effectively snaps me out of thinking about my brother.

"You will be lab partners with…" _Please don't be a weirdo._ "Damon Salvatore."

_WHAT THE FUCK! No. I'd happily take a weirdo over Damon fucking Salvatore._

I slowly turn around to face Damon who is sat at the back of the classroom and looking at me the same way I'm looking at him – with disgust. We seriously don't get along. I wouldn't go as far as hate, but it's a very strong dislike.

With a sigh, I gather my things and stand up to sit next to Damon. Damon is sat on one stool and has his feet on the other so that I can't sit down.

"Will you move your feet please?" I ask in the nicest tone I can manage to use when I'm around Damon.

"Nope." Damon smirks and annoyingly pops the p.

"Are we seriously going to do this Damon?" I sigh. Damon raises an eyebrow and shrugs.

I throw my bag and books down on the table with a bang and push Damon's feet from the stool before sitting down.

"Jesus Christ, Gilbert. Someone's cranky this morning." Damon patronises me.

"I was in a great mood..." I fake smile and then suddenly frown. "Until I got paired with you for a whole year."

"Yeah, well feelings mutual honey." He murmurs and pulls his phone out to begin texting.

"Just to warn you Damon…" I begin after a few moments of silence. "If you think that I'm going to be doing all the work for you for the next year, then you're sadly mistaken."

"And just to warn you Gilbert, if you think that _I'm _going to be doing all the work for _you_ for the next year, then _you're _sadly mistaken."

"That's rich. The big bad Damon Salvatore actually doing school work. Never!" I mock. "And stop calling me Gilbert, I have a first name you know."

"Wait, you're first name isn't Gilbert?" Damon pretends to be shocked. "Well look at that. You really do learn something new every day."

"Ha ha, you're hilarious Damon." I say in a mono-tone.

"And _you're _a bitch Gilbert." He smirks and I clench my hands into fists because I so desperately want to smack that stupid smirk off his arrogant little face.

I turn away from Damon before I do something that I'm seriously going to regret and notice that Mrs Walters has begun to teach the lesson.

I begin to copy down some of the notes that Mrs Walters has written on the huge blackboard and try to ignore the presence of the devil sat next to me. Half-way through writing down a word, I feel Damon nudge my arm on purpose so that my pen skids from the paper and I have a huge pen line through my work.

"Oh no, look at that." Damon teases me and I have to put my pen down on the table before I jab it into his eye.

"What the hell Damon?"

"What? It was an accident." He shrugs before smirking again. "Is little Miss Perfect upset because I've ruined her perfect work by making her smudge her perfect handwriting?"

"No, I'm _pissed _because little Miss Perfect has to sit next to Mr Asshole."

"Oh Gilbert, you wound me." Damon places a hand over his heart and pretends to wipe a fake tear.

"Stop calling me Gilbert Damon." I hiss through gritted teeth.

"Why? It's your name isn't it? Would you prefer for me to call you little Miss Perfect instead?"

"Why do you think that I'm perfect?" I demand.

"_I _don't think that you're perfect. You think that you're perfect, you always have." He mumbles.

"Oh believe me, I don't think that I'm perfect. I'm far from it."

"Well, I'm not going to argue there." Damon laughs. "And of course you think that you're perfect. Everyone thinks that. You never skip class, you get straight A's, you have the perfect friends and everyone loves you. All in all, you have the perfect life."

"I don't think that I'm perfect. I don't skip class because I actually want to do well in life. I get straight A's because believe it or not, I am smart. I have nice friends because I don't hang around with dickheads that belong in some gang like you. Not everybody loves me, but the people that do, love me because I'm a nice person. And I don't have the perfect life – you don't know the first thing about my life." I argue back and feel pretty damn proud of myself by the look of surprise I managed to leave on Damon's face. I don't think he's used to having people argue back to him.

"Well well, little Gilbert sure has a mouth on her." Damon tuts. "And believe me honey, I've met judgey little girls like you before, so I know exactly what your life is like."

"You know what Damon; you always say how you hate people who judge others before they even get to know them. Well maybe you should follow your own advice and stop criticising me before you even know the first thing about me." I exclaim loudly and Damon laughs a little at me. "You're seriously laughing at me now?"

"Sorry." Damon holds his hands up but doesn't sound the least bit sorry. "I'm just thinking about how fun this year is going to be with having to sit next to you 4 times a week."

"Oh yeah, a bundle of joy." I reply sarcastically and Damon rolls his eyes.

"Come on Gilbert, admit it. This year is going to be a blast. You're the luckiest girl in this class right now – you get to work with _moi__."_ He points his thumbs back at himself. "Do you know how many girls would kill to be in your position right now?"

"They could seriously have it. In fact, I think that I would help them to kill someone if it meant that I wouldn't have to work with you." I smirk.

"Oh wow." Damon laughs. "You really don't like me do you?"

"Oh look at that, you actually got an assumption about me right."

"Okay, so I've told you why I don't like you. Why don't you like me?" He asks curiously with a sly smile.

"Because you're a dick." I say casually and Damon rolls his eyes.

"I already know that."

"Because you're some asshole that thinks he can do whatever he wants. You think that you're better than everybody else because you know that most people are too scared of you to actually stand up to you. You think that you're God's gift to women and act like every girl you walk past is head-over-heels in love with you. You think that you can bully your way around school and people actually let you get away with it just because you're in some 'gang'." I bend two of my fingers when I say the word gang and look up from my work to Damon who is watching me with an unreadable expression on his face. "Did you know that?"

Something flashes across Damon's eyes and I recognise it as hurt but then change my mind when I remember that Damon Salvatore doesn't care.

"No, I didn't realise that you actually saw me that way." He says sadly and then places a smirk on his face. "And I _know_ that I'm God's gift to women. I mean, look at me."

"Add cocky bastard onto that list too." I mutter and Damon lets out a quiet laugh.

We sit in silence for the rest of the chemistry lesson and I actually manage to get some work done. Before I know it, the bell rings signalling the end of first period and I let out a sigh of relief. Damon grabs his chemistry book before walking away from the table. Just before he leaves the classroom he turns back to face me and shouts my name – my _last_ name.

"Gilbert! Same time tomorrow?" He winks. "You know what; I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship." He mocks and leaves the classroom when I throw him a deadly glare.

I run a hand through my hair and sigh again. I honestly have no idea how I'm going to get through the rest of the year with Damon Salvatore sat by my side. I groan loudly just thinking about spending a whole year with Damon and collect my things to begin making my way to my next class.

XXX

"Wait a minute, Mrs Walters actually paired you with Damon? As in Damon Salvatore?" My other best friend Rebekah Mikaelson asks me at lunch when we are sat at a table in the cafeteria and I nod my head yes.

"That bitch." Caroline sighs and I nod my head.

"I know. I seriously think that I might fail that class with Damon by my side. I couldn't concentrate at all in chemistry today." I mutter and run a hand through my hair.

"Because he's so hot." Rebekah nods and Caroline and I stare at her in shock.

"No! Because he's such a dick!" I cry and Rebekah makes an O shape with her mouth.

"Okay, he's a dick yeah. But what guy isn't? I mean, it would be a hundred times worse if he was a dick _and_ ugly. At least you have something nice to look at while fighting with him." She reasons.

"He isn't hot Bekah." I sigh and Rebekah gives me a funny look. "He isn't… Shut up!"

Jeremy walks into the cafeteria and looks for me. I wave him over and he sits down at our table for lunch. I'm so lucky to have the friends I do who accept Jeremy even though he has autism and is a year younger than us.

"Hey Jere, how was your morning?" I ask him and push some fries in his direction. He pops one in his mouth and stares at the fries before answering me.

"It was fine. I like my teachers this year." He says quietly and I smile.

"That's good."

"Hey Jeremy. I like that jacket, is it new?" Rebekah asks Jeremy and he shows a small smile before muttering a quiet yes. "It looks good on you."

I hear loud laughter coming from across the other side of the cafeteria and spot Damon and his friends crowded around one small table and throwing chips into each other mouths from far away. Damon must feel me gazing because he looks up and meets my eyes. He smirks at me before sending me a sly wave. I wave back before I turn the wave into just my middle finger so I'm flipping him off. He laughs and resumes the boyish game he was playing.

"Hey Elena." I hear the voice of a guy say and turn around to see Mason Lockwood approaching me. Mason has been my crush since before I can even remember. His grey eyes stare into mine seductively and I find the brown curls on his head so sexy.

"Hi Mason." I breathe out and can't stop the smile from spreading onto my face when he sits down at the table I'm at and in front of me.

"How was your first day back?" He asks me and I shrug.

"It was okay I guess. Isn't over yet though." I laugh at my own sentence and end up snorting. I immediately stop laughing and I can feel my cheeks heating up with embarrassment. _Did I seriously just snort in front of Mason Lockwood. I'm such a fucking idiot!_

I turn to see my so called best friends also laughing at me and even my brother has a smile on his face.

"Good." Mason smiles casually as if he didn't just hear me snort. _He's such a cutie._

"How was yours?" I ask him after I've managed to turn back to the normal colour my skin possess' instead of an embarrassed red.

"It was fine. It's got a lot better now though." He smiles and looks directly at me. I see Rebekah roll her eyes from the corner of my eye and hear Caroline make a gag noise. _I think it's safe to say that my best friends don't really like Mason too much. _Caroline told me that she thinks that Mason is just trying to get into my pants, but I don't believe her. Mason isn't like that.

We continue the light flirting for the rest of lunch and when the bell rings for the beginning of next period, Mason even walks me to class. Seriously, what doesn't this guy do? He's perfect.

XXX

I spend the night doing homework instead of going out. I don't really feel like doing anything tonight. The first day back at school always drains the energy out of me.

I finish what homework I have and put it in my bag before going downstairs. My mom is nowhere to be found so I begin to make Jeremy and I dinner.

When I've perfected the macaroni and cheese I decided to make I go upstairs to Jeremy's room and find him sprawled out on his bed and playing video games.

"Jere, dinners ready."

He pauses his game and follows me downstairs to the kitchen table and sits down in front of a plate of macaroni and cheese. I manage to have a small conversation with him before I hear the front door swing open and my mom strolls in.

"Oh, hello children." She smiles and sits down at the end of the table where Jeremy and I are eating. "How was school today?"

"Like you care." I mutter and my mom sends me an evil glare.

"Of course I care Elena, I'm your mother."

"Huh, could have fooled me."

"Don't you dare talk to me like that!" She hisses.

"Why not? I'm only speaking my mind. If you want to be our mother then you should start acting like our mother." I tell her and my voice slowly becomes louder and louder.

"I do act like your mother Elena. So what if I like a drink every now and then?"

"Every now and then? Mom, you drink two bottles of wine every single night. It's actually a surprise to find you _not _passed out on the couch in the morning."

"I'm a single mom now Elena. Do you even know the pressure that I have?"

"What pressure? You don't have any responsibilities apart from work – which you always turn up late to!"

"I take care of you and Jeremy don't I?"

"No! I have to take care of me and Jeremy because you're always too drunk to even function properly!" I'm yelling now.

"Don't you dare say that I don't take care of you! I give you everything that you need! I think that you-" My mom starts yelling but is cut off by Jeremy.

"Stop yelling, stop yelling, stop yelling!" He shouts over and over and pulls on his hair hard – something he does when he's scared or nervous. I jump up from my chair and place my hands over Jeremy's so that I'm able to pry his hands away from his hair before he pulls it out.

"It's okay Jere." I say in a calm voice and place my hands on his shoulders. "We're not yelling anymore. Why don't you go back up to your room?"

Jeremy lets go of his hair and nods his head before standing up and heading up the staircase to his room. Once I hear the door to his bedroom shut, I turn to face my mom again.

"Mom, seriously, you _need_ to stop drinking so much. I'm only 17. I can't take care of Jeremy by myself and concentrate on the most important year of my high school life."

"I don't drink _that_ much Elena." She scoffs and I let out a humourless laugh.

"Mom, you're an alcoholic-"

"I'm not an alcoh-"

"No! Don't say that you're not because you are. The cupboards are full of bottles of wine and vodka and everything else that you like to drink so much instead of food." I move closer to her and take her hand in mine. "Mom please, I've never asked you for anything, but I'm asking you for this. Please, _please_ get help and stop drinking."

"Elena, I don't need help. I'm not an alcoholic." I nod my head at her answer and sigh loudly.

"Goodnight mom." I whisper and kiss her cheek before heading up the stairs to be able to sleep the day away. Just before I manage to close my bedroom door, I hear the faint clicking of wine bottles coming from the kitchen. With a loud sigh and tears forming in my eyes, I close the door, turn off the light and slide underneath the covers.

**A/N: Let me know what you think...**


	2. Chapter 2

Today is Friday. _Thank God_! It's only been two whole weeks since I've began my senior year and I honestly can't wait to get a few days off already. Senior year is hard!

My mom continued drinking heavily, even with my plea for her to stop. I don't know what to do anymore. What is she goes too far one day, then what?

Damon and I continued to piss each other off every time we were in the same room, but yesterday, he started to ease off a little – keyword being _a little._ He still thinks that I think I'm perfect, which is total bullshit.

I sigh as I head to my last class of the day – Chemistry. I just want to get this class over with and then head home to get ready for the party tonight. School slut Andie Star is having a party at her house tonight and invited the whole school – even the freshman. It's not like she doesn't have the room. Her house is a freaking castle!

"Ahh, there's my bestie!" Damon shouts to me as I head into the classroom and make my way over to my seat. "Oh, it's you. Never mind."

"Where you expecting someone else?" I ask him, a small smile playing at the corners of mouth.

"Not really." Damon shrugs.

I take my seat and pull my notepad and pen out from my bag.

"So are you going to the party later?" Damon asks me and I nod.

"Yes, you?"

"Hell yeah! Maybe I'll even see you there." He smirks.

"Urgh, I hope not."

"Ouch Gilbert." I narrow my eyes at him because he_ knows_ that I hate being called Gilbert.

"Alright class. Today, I want you to work in your pairs and find out how these metals react with different acids." Mrs Walters holds up a range of scientific equipment and explains step by step what to do. I collect the necessary equipment and head back to Damon as he hasn't even bothered to move from his seat and help me.

"Get up." I poke him in the ribs and hand him some things. "You're actually helping me this time."

"Urgh, you're so fussy!" He groans as he stands up from his seat and begins to follow my directions of what to do as I doubt he listened to Mrs Walters's explanation. I hand Damon some sulphuric acid and tell him to pour it into a pot filled with a type of metal.

"No, not all of it!" I cry when Damon doesn't stop pouring. "Damon!"

"Calm down Gilbert. See it's fine." We both stare at the pot now filled with sulphuric acid and watch as it reacts with the metal and begins to bubble over the rim of the pot.

"Oops, my bad." Damon cringes. I give him a look that says _I told you so_ before grabbing some paper towels from the front of the room and start to clean up the mess Damon made.

"You could help you know." I say to Damon when he sits back down again and leaves me to it.

"Why? You're a woman, isn't cleaning your speciality?" He smirks.

"Where did you say you went to comedian school again?" I ask and see Damon bite his lip to stop from laughing.

"I didn't need to go to a school Elena. My wit is just natural." I meet Damon's eyes and stare at him in shock. "What?"

"You just called me Elena instead of Gilbert." I say with wide eyes and an open mouth.

"Don't get used to it Gilbert." He rolls his eyes. "It just slipped out."

"So you actually know my name?" I ask and continue with the experiment.

"Of course I know you're name. Everyone at this school knows Elena Gilbert. All the girls want to be her and all the guys want to date her." He says and I laugh.

"Are you saying that _you_ want to date me Damon?" I tease and he rolls his eyes.

"Don't get ahead of yourself. I don't _date_ anybody. Sleep with you however, definitely." He winks and now it's my turn to roll my eyes.

"Well, I'm flattered." I say in a mono-tone. "…But I don't sleep with bad boys."

"Sure you do. Every girl secretly loves a bad boy. And you don't get badder than me." He whispers in my ear and I kick myself when I get tingles down my spine.

"No, you don't get _dumber_ than you." I correct him. "Seriously, like 90% of the things you do is just out of pure idiocy."

"But 10% of things aren't?" He laughs. "You know, I remember you once told me not to judge people before you got to know them."

"So, what's your point?"

"My point is maybe you should get to know me first before you judge the things that I do." He says seriously and I think this is the first time I've ever seen Damon act serious. I go to apologise to him but change my mind last minute and sit down on my seat to write the results of the experiment down. I can feel Damon's eyes on me but I don't dare look up and meet them. We continue the rest of the chemistry lesson and as soon as the bell goes I practically run out of there.

I head to my car where I usually meet Jeremy and I am confused when I spot 4 guys hanging around my car and Jeremy trapped in the middle of them.

"What the hell's going on?" I yell when I spot Jeremy tugging on his hair showing me that he's scared.

"Oh look Jeremy, you're big sister has come to save you." One of them laughs and I give him a deadly glare.

"Shut the hell up. Leave my brother alone. Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Nope. You see, I saw Jeremy trying to hit on my girlfriend. I'm just making sure that it doesn't happen again." The guy shrugs and the other three guys nod their head in agreement.

"Hitting on your girlfriend? Are you kidding me? Jeremy wouldn't do that." I tell him sternly.

"Well he did." He hisses at me and takes a step closer to Jeremy. "What? Did you think that she'd actually like someone like you?"

I place my hand on the guy's chest and push him back. "Stay away from my brother." I spit out through gritted teeth.

"Or what?" The guy steps closer again but to me this time. "What are you going to do about it?"

"_She's_ not going to do anything." I hear Damon say and turn around to spot him heading down the school steps and over in our direction. "But I will."

"Stay out of this Salvatore. This has nothing to do with you." The guy hisses and Damon gives a small chuckle.

"It has everything to do with me. You see, she…" He points to me. "Happens to be my lab partner. And yes, she's an annoying little bitch most of the time but she doesn't deserve assholes like you ganging up on her. So, it has everything to do with me." He repeats again and stands next to me.

"Come on Jonas." One of the other guys says and begins to walk away with the other two following him. 'Jonas' however, stays exactly where he is and begins to square up to Damon.

"Leave this alone Damon. Just get in your car and be on your merry way." Jonas warns and Damon just raises an eyebrow to him.

"Yeah, I don't really feel like doing that." He sighs.

"Damon. Walk. Away." Jonas says slowly.

"No."

"Fine. Then I guess I'll just kick your ass too." Jonas laughs and Damon shrugs.

"You're funeral." Damon punches Jonas straight in the jaw and Jonas stumbles back. He lets out a weird growl before charging at Damon, but before he has chance to reach him, Damon sticks his elbow out and elbows Jonas straight in the nose. Jonas cries out in pain and falls to the floor. Damon puts his foot on Jonas neck and presses down.

"You doing a pretty shit job at kicking my ass Jonas." Damon chuckles.

"Fuck… you!" Jonas wheezes out from the pressure Damon is putting on his neck and Damon presses down more.

"What the hell is going on here?" Principal Tanner shouts and rushes down the school steps to pull Damon off Jonas. "Damon, what the hell are you doing?"

"The guy was being a dick." Damon says simply and shrugs Mr Tanner off from where he is holding Damon on the shoulders.

"Jonas, are you okay?" Mr Tanner asks Jonas who is holding his nose in one hand and rubbing his neck with the other.

"Fine." He replies angrily and glares at Damon.

"Damon, my office! Now!"

"Mr Tanner, wait. Damon was just-" I interfere but Damon interrupts me.

"I was just about to kill this guy before you stopped me." He glares at me to tell me to shut up and turns back to Mr Tanner. "Don't keep me waiting." He sing-songs before walking back up the steps to school.

"Elena, Jeremy, why don't you head home. I can take it from here." Mr Tanner says to us and I nod and get inside the car.

On our way home, I notice Jeremy fiddling with his hands and he looks really sad.

"Jeremy, why was Jonas saying you were hitting on his girlfriend?" I ask calmly and Jeremy looks at me through shocked eyes.

"You believe him?" He asks.

"No, of course not. I just want to know why he said that." I reassure him and his expression softens.

"His girlfriend started to talk to me in class today. She said that I was cute." He says quietly and looks out of his window. "Jonas overheard."

"So, he just assumed you were hitting on his girlfriend?" I ask and Jeremy nods his head.

_What a stupid dick!_ I'm glad that Damon just beat the crap out of him! How dare he confront my brother like that in an empty parking lot!

"Are you alright? He didn't hurt you did he?" I ask Jeremy and hold my breath until he answers me.

"No."

I let out a long breath and smile.

"Good. Because if he did, I'd kill him."

XXX

I arrive at Andie's party half an hour after it was due to start so when I get there, it was in full swing. Andie's parents are the second richest people in Mystic Falls after the Lockwood's, so she lives in a huge house on the other side of town.

When I get there, I immediately begin to look for Caroline and Rebekah, saying the occasional hey to people who I pass by and want to talk to me. I spot my blonde bitches by the fire pit in the back yard and beers in their hands.

"And look who finally decided to join the party." Rebekah greets me when I reach them.

"Sorry I'm late." I smile. "What are we drinking?"

Rebekah hands me a cup and we fall into light conversation and gossip.

"Did you hear about Jonas Wallace?" Caroline asks Rebekah and I. "Apparently, he got his ass kicked in the school parking lot today!"

"No way!" Rebekah laughs. "The guy is a total douchebag!"

"I was kind of there." I admit and Rebekah and Caroline immediately stop laughing and look at me.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I was there when Damon kicked Jonas' ass."

"Wait, Damon kicked his ass? As in Damon Salvatore?" Caroline asks me and I nod. "Jesus, I'm surprised he isn't dead."

"Yeah, Jonas and his friends were ganging up on my brother after school. Damon heard Jonas say something and then he beat the crap out of him. Principle Tanner stopped it though." I inform my two best friends.

"Aww, that's so cute!" Rebekah squeals and I stare at her.

"How is watching someone beat someone else up cute?" I scoff.

"Because Damon did it to protect you." She says in a duh tone and I raise my eyebrows at her.

"No, he did it because he's an unpredictable asshole who kicked Jonas' ass just because he knew he could."

"Whatever you say Elena." Rebekah sighs and Caroline changes the conversation.

After a few more minutes of light chatter, I spot Damon on the other side of the yard out of the corner of my eye.

"I'll be right back." I tell Caroline and Rebekah and make my way over to where Damon is stood with his friends.

"Hey Damon." I smile when I reach him. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Oh, if it isn't Elena Gilbert." I hear school jock Kol Mikaelson slur and I lock eyes with him. "What does a pretty girl like you want with Damon Salvatore?"

"None of your damn business Kol." Damon tells him with a fake smile on his face and then turns back to face me. "Sure."

Damon walks away from his group of friends and I follow until we reach the edge of the back yard.

"What can I do for you Gilbert?"

"I just wanted to thank you. You know, for what you did today." I tell him and Damon honestly looks shocked.

"Don't mention it, you don't have to thank me. If anything, you did _me_ a favour. I've wanted to kick that guy's ass for a long time now. You just gave me an excuse to do it." He jokes and I let out a little laugh.

"Well thank you anyway." I tell him again and turn to walk away when Damon grabs my arm lightly and stops me. I look at him and raise my eyebrows.

"Why was Jonas trying to pick a fight with your brother anyway?" He asks quietly.

"He said that Jeremy was flirting with his girlfriend." I explain.

"And was he?"

"No!" I cry. "He wasn't."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because Jeremy can barely say a full sentence to people that he doesn't know without getting all nervous and breaking down. He's autistic so I seriously doubt that he was flirting with some assholes girlfriend right in front of him."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know." Damon apologises awkwardly and I shrug.

"Yeah well, I guess my life isn't as perfect as you thought." I give Damon a small smile and then make my way back over to Caroline and Rebekah who are still stood in the same place that I left them.

"Where did you go?" Caroline asks me when I return to fire pit.

"I went to thank Damon for what he did today."

"Did you flirt with him or anything?" Rebekah asks me after a few moments of silence and I look at her in horror.

"No! Why would you think that?"

"Because he's looking at you right now like he's about to pounce and take you right on the floor in front of everyone." She giggles and I turn around to look at Damon and see what the hell she is talking about. As I try to make eye contact with him though, he quickly looks away and pretends like he wasn't just staring at me. _What the hell?_

XXX

"Hello beautiful." I hear Mason whisper in my ear and he puts an arm around my waist.

"Hey Mason."

"Where are your friends?" He asks and looks around.

"They went to the bathroom." I tell him and let my eyes roam up and down his body.

"Oh, this might make it easier then." He says and I snap my eyes away from his body and up to his eyes.

"Make what easier?"

"Asking you out." He grins and I do a double take.

"You want to ask me out?"

"Of course I do. I like you Elena."

"Ser… Seriously?" I stutter and take a drink of my beer as my mouth has suddenly gone very dry. _I am such a freak…_

"Yes." He laughs. "How about you give me your phone number? We can arrange sometime to go out next week?"

"Yeah, that would be great." I breathe out and type in my number on Mason's phone.

"Thanks." He smiles and takes his phone back from my hands. "Well, see you around."

"Yeah, bye Mason." I wave awkwardly and take a few deep breathes when he walks away and leaves me to my thoughts.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Rebekah asks when her and Caroline come back from the bathroom.

"Mason Lockwood just asked for my number and said he wants to take me out." I grin.

"Ew, seriously?" Caroline asks and I glare at her.

"What do you mean? Come on guys, you know that I've liked Mason since forever." I sigh.

"Elena, the guy is a total douche. He'll want to date you until he sleeps with you and then dump your ass before you even wake up in the morning." Caroline says lightly and Rebekah nods her head in agreement.

"Gee, thanks guys." I mutter and take another drink of my beer.

"Elena, you know we're only looking out for you." Rebekah sighs.

"I know, but I _really_ want to go out with this guy!" I exclaim.

"Well, just be careful." Rebekah warns quietly and I nod my head.

"I will Beks."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I got an amazing response for the first two chapters.**

**I had trouble deciding whether to write this chapter in EPOV or DPOV so I did a mixture of both. I hope it's isn't too confusing and you are still able to understand it. **

**Read on…**

Elena's POV

Urgh, I'm so hung-over from last night. I haven't been able to function properly all day.

I agreed to head over to the grill later and meet Rebekah there. I take a long hot shower and curl my hair after I've dried it.

"Elena?" My mom shouts and knocks twice on my bedroom door becoming entering my room.

"What's up mom?" I sigh because I know that she's going to ask me to do something for her.

"I need to head to the store later today, could you take Jeremy with you when you go to the grill?"

"Why do you have to go to the store?" I ask and set my curlers down on my vanity table once I've finished curling the last piece of hair.

"That's not important." _Alcohol. _"Can you take Jeremy with you or not?"

"Yeah, of course I can." I confirm and grab a jacket from out of my closet.

"Okay, thank you." My mom smiles and leaves my bedroom. I text Rebekah telling her that Jeremy will be coming with me and wait for her to give me the okay before I go into my brothers room.

"Hey Jere, you want to come to the grill?" I ask casually. I don't think he'd be too happy to know that my mom basically dumped him on me to go and buy more alcohol so she can get shit-faced tonight.

"Sure." He shrugs.

I drive Jeremy and I to the grill and immediately spot Rebekah sat in a booth while texting on her phone.

"Hey Beks." I greet her happily and sit down opposite her with Jeremy sat next to me.

"Hey guys. So, how are you feeling this morning?" She asks me and I shake my head.

"Not too great."

"Yeah, me neither." She laughs loudly and then clutches her head. "Ow."

"Oh my God, you always do that!" I giggle quietly.

"I know!" She replies frustrated and takes a long drink of the glass of water in front of her.

"So have you heard from Caroline today?"

"No, I know that she went home with Tyler from the party last night…"

"She went home with him?" I shriek and then clutch my head.

"Okay, first of all HA! And yeah, she went home with him." Rebekah confirms.

"I can't remember the last time that we went to a party and Caroline _didn't _go home with someone."

"No, me either." Rebekah shakes her head.

Caroline is known for sleeping with guys every time that she gets drunk. I tried to tell her to stop drinking last night but she continued anyway; and now, she's slept with Tyler Lockwood. Ew.

XXX

Damon's POV

I picked Tyler up from some girl's house and then made my way to Klaus'.

"So, who did you fuck last night?" I ask Tyler and switch the radio on in my Camaro.

"Caroline Forbes."

"Who the fuck is that?"

"Dude, she's been going to our school since Freshman year." Tyler tells me and raises an eyebrow.

"Is she hot?"

"Yes."

"I wonder why I don't know her." I mumble more to myself that to Tyler.

I pull up the car outside Klaus' and beep the horn a few times.

"Come on you British bastard, we're waiting!" I yell out of the window and get a few looks from passer-byers.

"I'm coming dick." I hear Klaus yell back from his front door and he enters the back seat of my car so that he's sitting behind Tyler.

"Yeah, I wouldn't sit on that side of the car if I were you." I warn him.

"Why not?"

"Because I fucked some girl there yesterday after the party."

"Oh my God!" Klaus cries and jumps up to sit on the other side behind me. Tyler and I burst out laughing at the horrified look on Klaus' face.

"Just drive." He mumbles. "The quicker I get out of this car, the better."

I begin driving to the Mystic grill – the town's _only _bar-slash-restaurant-slash-hang out spot.

"So Tyler and I got lucky last night, did you?" I ask Klaus and look at him through the rear-view mirror in my car.

"No." He shrugs and then looks at the back of Tyler's head. "Who the hell did you fuck?"

"Caroline Forbes." Tyler smirks and all of the blood drains from Klaus' face.

"_You_ managed to have sex with Caroline?" He asks quietly.

"Yep."

Klaus doesn't say anything more until we get to the grill and I begin to think that Klaus has a thing for this Caroline chick. But then, surely he would have told me about it?

"Here we are." I cut the engine off to my car. "The grill. Man, we really need somewhere else to hang out."

"Amen to that."

We get out of the car and enter the grill. I scan around and spot Klaus' twin sister Rebekah sat with Elena Gilbert and her brother at a booth.

Elena told me that Jeremy is autistic yesterday and I honestly had no idea – I just always thought that he was _really _quiet…

"There's your sister." I sing-song and point in the direction of Rebekah. Klaus gives an evil smirk and rubs his hands together.

"You guys in the mood for pissing her off?"

"Dude, this is me you're talking to. Do you even need to ask?" I tell him seriously and then follow him over to where Rebekah and my new 'best friend' are sat.

"Hello dear sister." Klaus grins and puts his arm around the back of Rebekah as he sits down.

"Urgh, what do you want?" She huffs and shrugs Klaus' arm off. I sit next to Klaus and Tyler sits down in the space next to Jeremy.

"Can't I say hello to my sister without wanting anything?" Klaus fakes hurt.

"No." She scoffs. "You _always _want something."

"I'm hurt Bekah." He looks away from Rebekah and across to Elena. "Elena, may I say that you look ravishing today?"

"No you may not." Elena smiles fakely.

"Don't take it personally Klaus." I whisper to him but loud enough that Elena is able to hear me. "She's just generally a bitch to everyone."

"That's rich coming from the town's walking dick." She mumbles.

"Jesus, who pissed in your cheerio's this morning?" I ask and she shows a little smile that she tries to hide.

"She's hung-over." Rebekah explains quietly.

"Women." I scoff. "They can't handle their alcohol."

"Hey Tyler, I thought that you were with Caroline?" Rebekah asks suddenly, probably to stop Elena and I from breaking out into an argument like we usually do.

"I was, I left." Tyler replies simply. "So my cousin told me that he asked you out yesterday." Tyler says to Elena and she nods her head.

"Yes, he did." She smiles.

"Mason? You're going out with Mason?" I laugh and Elena narrows her eyes at me.

"Yes, how is that funny?" She asks annoyed.

"Because you say that you hate douchebags yet you've agreed to go out with the biggest douchebag in town."

"No, I think that title goes to you." She smirks and I stop laughing.

"Ha ha." I say sarcastically and roll my eyes. "Just don't come crying to me when you find out that I'm right."

"Oh believe me, I won't." She replies casually.

"Hey Jeremy, tell your sister that Mason's a douchebag. Maybe she'll listen to you." I whisper across the table to Jeremy whilst looking at Elena.

"Mason's a douchebag." Jeremy says to Elena and she widens her eyes in surprise.

"I'm going to go and play a game of pool." Tyler announces and looks at me. "You in?"

"Nah man, I think that I'm going to hang with my bestie a bit longer." I smirk and see Elena roll her eyes from the corner of my eye.

"Klaus?"

"Yeah, I'm in." I stand up to allow Klaus to exit the booth and then scoot closer to Rebekah.

"So, what were you lovely ladies talking about before I graced you with my presence? Bra sizes? Pillow fights? When your next period is due?"

"Ew, Damon!" Elena cries and I shrug my shoulders innocently.

"I don't really want to know anyway." I tell her honestly and then turn my attention to Elena's brother. "How's it going Jeremy?"

"It's good." He says quietly and I see Elena narrow her eyes in my direction but I ignore her.

"Hey man, if that Jonas dude says anything to you again you come and find me yeah?"

"Yeah. Thanks." He says again but equally as quiet.

"Your sister told me that he said you were hitting on his girlfriend. I find that kinda funny seeing as no-one would touch Vicky Donovan with a barge pole." I admit honestly.

"I don't know, I think she's nice." Jeremy shrugs.

"Really? I think that you could do so much better than Vicky anyway."

"Thank you." Jeremy meets my eyes for the first time in the whole conversation and gives me a small smile before looking down at the table again. "I'm going to the bathroom." Jeremy tells Elena and leaves the booth.

Elena stares at me with wide eyes and an open mouth and I find Rebekah looking at me with the same expression.

"What?" I ask them both.

"That was really weird." Rebekah mutters.

"What was weird?"

"You and Jeremy." Elena answers for her. "He hardly ever talks to anyone like that, especially to people that he doesn't know."

"Yeah, he must like you." Rebekah nudges me with a smile on her face.

"Well that's hardly a surprise, I'm fucking awesome."

Elena smiles gratefully at me and I find myself smiling back at her. I hold her gaze with my own and neither of us want to look away.

"Dude, I just whooped Tyler's arse!" Klaus shouts to me and slaps me on the back laughing which makes me finally break away from the intense eye contact I'm having with Elena.

"I wasn't that bad." Tyler says moodily.

"You were fucking awful Tyler." Klaus points out. I look away from my arguing friends and back to Elena and find her looking down at the table.

"Come on man, we're going to get out of here." Klaus says and makes his way to the entrance of the Mystic grill with Tyler following behind him. I turn back to Elena and find that she's already looking at me.

"Well, see you." I say awkwardly and stand up to follow in the direction Klaus and Tyler just left from.

XXX

Elena's POV

"What the hell was that?" Rebekah asks me and I look up at her.

"What was what?"

"That – with you and Damon. You just practically had eye sex!" She exclaims and I laugh loudly.

"We didn't have 'eye sex' Rebekah."

"You were. I know eye sex when I see it."

"I don't think that's anything to be proud of." I cringe and Rebekah huffs.

"Fine, whatever." She holds her hands up in defeat. Jeremy comes back from the bathroom and takes his seat next to me again.

"Where did Damon go?" Is the first thing he asks me and I do a double take.

"He left." I say slowly still staring at my brother. "Why do you care where he went?"

"I like him." Jeremy says quietly, shrugging his shoulder and taking a long gulp of the glass of coke in front of him. I look back to Rebekah who looks equally as confused as me and she shrugs too.

20 minutes after Damon, Tyler and Klaus left, Caroline enters the grill and comes running over to Rebekah, Jeremy and I as soon as she spots us.

"What's wrong with you?" Rebekah asks Caroline as soon as she sits down.

"Urgh, I've never felt so cheap in my entire life." Caroline groans and places her head in her hands.

"What are you talking about?" I ask and touch her arm in comfort.

"I'm talking about Tyler! I slept with him last night and he left before I even had the chance to wake up!" She exclaims and her voice breaks a little at the end.

"Wait, so he had sex with you and then just left without telling you?" Rebekah asks and Caroline nods her head. "Oh my god! What a stupid dick!"

"I can't believe he did that." I input.

"Well he did, he didn't even leave me a note or text or anything!"

"What a bastard." Rebekah growls and pulls Caroline into a hug. I notice Jeremy fidgeting awkwardly and its times like this that I feel sorry for him. He has to sit through a bunch of girl drama because he doesn't have any guy friends and I drag him around with me everywhere I go. I just don't know what to do – he used to do stuff with my dad if I wanted to go out with friends, but my dad left so what now? I try my best to help him fit in but it feels like my best just isn't good enough.

"It just sucks because I kinda liked Tyler." Caroline mumbles and I bring my attention back to my upset best friend.

"Well it's his loss Care." I tell her and put a smile on my face.

"Yeah, you're right." She says and begins to perk up a little. "Guys are such assholes."

"Except for Jeremy." Rebekah giggles and smiles to Jeremy who gives a small smile back. "Hey, I know what will cheer you up Care."

"What?" Caroline murmurs and looks between Rebekah and I.

"Well Elena and Damon practically had eye sex right in front of me." She laughs and I glare at her.

"We didn't have eye sex! I don't even know what that is!" I exclaim and throw my hands in the air in frustration.

"Exactly! If you don't know what it is, how do you know that you didn't have it?"

"Wait, you and Damon Salvatore?" Caroline asks and Rebekah nods her head. "I though you couldn't stand each other? Why would you have eye sex?"

"We _can't _stand each other and we _didn't _have eye sex!" I confirm and kick Rebekah's leg under the table for causing this interrogation which she responds to by smirking.

"They did Care. I could see them both undressing each other with their eyes." Rebekah continues teasing me and Caroline laughs.

"Oh God Bekah, shut up please! We didn't now drop it!" I whisper angrily across the table.

"It's cheering Caroline up isn't it?" Rebekah whispers back and I sigh when I notice the smile on Caroline's face. _Urgh, the things I do for my friends._

XXX

Damon's POV

"Well, if it isn't Damon Salvatore and his favourite bitches." I hear the voice of my nemesis announce and turn around to see the ugly mug of Samuel Collins. Seriously, he has a face that not even his own mother could love.

Sam is in a gang that usually stays on the other side of town. When they don't, well let's just say that blood is usually shed. This guy is the biggest dick around. I personally think that he should wear a condom on his head; if he's going to act like a dick he may as well dress like one too.

"What are you doing here Sam?" I sigh.

"Just visiting old friends." Sam shrugs and points to the two teenagers stood behind him. "My boys here got a little bored so I thought we could cause a bit of trouble."

"Your boys?" I scoff. "Gay much?"

"Ah Damon, you're still as charming as I remember." He announces and I cringe.

"I'm flattered and all Sam but I don't swing that way."

"You're hilarious Damon." Sam says in a mono-tone.

"I try." I grin.

"Listen Sam, why don't you do everyone a favour and take your 'boys' over there and fuck off back to the other side of town?" Klaus asks angrily. Klaus and Sam really, _really, _hate each other. Sam slept with Klaus' sister a few months ago and took naked pictures of her to show to his well, I would say friends but I doubt he has that many…

"Why would I do that when we're having so much fun with you guys?" He asks patronisingly and walks closer to us. "That reminds me actually, do you know who else I had fun with?" He smirks to Klaus and takes a deep breath. "What was her name again? Rebekah? She was a wild one in bed. Maybe it's because she's British?"

Klaus swings for Sam before I can even manage to stop him and knocks him to the floor.

"Calm the fuck down man." I tell Klaus and have to drag him away from kicking Sam in the ribs.

"You stay the hell away from my sister asshole!" Klaus shouts and begins to walk away. Sam gets up from the floor and begins to run at Klaus' back but I suddenly step in front of him and hit Sam clean in the jaw which rewards me with a loud crack sound.

"Oops." I shrug. Sam's 'boys' go to charge at me but I hold my finger out and shake it side to side. "Ah ah, I wouldn't do that if I were you."

They stop running at me and instead help Sam up from the floor. I walk up to Sam so that I'm face to face with him.

"Next time you feel like causing 'trouble', try and cause it with someone who isn't going to lay you flat out." I smirk. "Bye slugger." I tap him on the jaw lightly again and laugh when I hear him hiss out.

I turn away and follow Klaus and Tyler back to my car.

"You okay man?" I ask Klaus when I notice his breathing is heavy and his face is slightly more red than usual.

"Yeah. I just can't believe what he did to Bekah. I may argue with her 24/7 but she's still my sister you know?"

"I know." I pat him on the shoulder and get into my car. I drop Klaus and Tyler off home and head to my house.

I head up the gravel driveway, the stones crunching underneath my tires and switch my engine off. I don't notice any lights on in the house so I'm guessing that my mom has gone out.

I open the front door and walk into the huge living room, switching on every light I pass in the process. I notice a piece of paper on the table that contains alcohol tumblers and pick it up.

_Damon,_

_I got called in for an emergency. I don't know when I'll be back. _

_Dinner is in the oven,_

_Love mom._

My mom is a doctor at Mystic Falls general and always seems to be working. I hardly see her anymore. I find myself alone in this huge house more times that I find myself with someone.

I've never met my dad; I actually have no idea who he is. My mom was just a teenager when she had me and when she told my dad that she was pregnant he left her. How could someone do that?

My mom studied for her medical degree while bringing up a child – and that makes me have so much respect for her. Of course, my grandparents helped out a lot but it still must have been hard for her. She met someone else when I was 4 years old. He was training to be a doctor too; Kalvin Monroe. Kal and my mom moved in together as soon as she got her doctor's degree and she took me with them. A year later she fell pregnant again. My brother Stefan was born and I was so happy because I always wanted a little brother to play with.

When I was 12 and Stef was 6, he got into a car accident with Kalvin and died on impact. Kalvin survived but his relationship with my mom just wasn't the same anymore. They separated and my mom bought this house; the house I live in now. She always seems to want to go to work. I think it may be a distraction from her life – she never got the chance to save Stefan so she saves other people instead.

I put the note down with a sigh and head straight up the huge wooden staircase to my bedroom. I jump on my bed and lie on my back so that I'm staring at the ceiling. I don't move for the next hour just thinking about the few memories that I have of my baby brother.

**A/N: I know that there wasn't much Delena action in this chapter, I was just trying to develop characters and introduce some new ones. I hope you liked it anyway.**

**Let me know what you think…**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I can not get over the response I've been getting to this story - you guys are freaking awesome!**

**Here's the next chapter, although I'm not too sure about this one...**

Elena's POV

I was up late last night. My mom drank a little too much and I ended up holding her hair back while she threw up in the toilet and calming her down while she was drunk crying into my shoulder. I finally managed to get to sleep at around 4AM. When my alarm went off three hours later I could have cried. I was so exhausted!

I got ready for the day moving around like some kind of zombie from a really badly produced horror movie and I had to put a tonne of concealer underneath my eyes to make myself look at least _half_ alive. I downed two cups of coffee before I drove Jeremy and I to school and made my way to my first class.

"Jesus Gilbert, you look like shit." I hear my supposedly new best friend say when I sat down next to him first thing that morning.

"Aww thank you so much Damon, you really know how to make a girl feel special." I mutter sarcastically and I can feel his eyes on me for a few moments before he speaks again.

"Oh, I know what's wrong with you?" He says and leans back in his chair. I turn my head to look at him with wide eyes. _How the hell does he know about my mom?_ Play it cool, Elena. Play it cool.

"What do you mean?"

"It's your time of the month isn't it?" He whispers.

"No! Damon, what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Nothing, you just seem a little bitchier than usual." He shrugs and I go to punch him but then change my mind when I can't find the energy to do so. Mrs Walters begins our chemistry lesson and I have to fight to keep my eyes open. I close my eyes for just a second and feel Damon nudge me.

"I know Mrs Walters is the most boring person alive, but it's a little rude to fall asleep on people." Damon says with a smirk on his face.

I mumble something back to him, not quite sure what and then concentrate back on Mrs Walters's lesson.

"Seriously, what's wrong with you? You look like you're about to pass out."

"I didn't get a lot of sleep last night." I tell him honestly and begin to write notes down on the topic Mrs Walters is discussing.

"Why?"

"Why what?" I ask confused and continuing writing things down.

"Why didn't you get a lot of sleep?"

"I just couldn't sleep, that's all." I lie and Damon makes a sound that sounds like he doesn't believe me but I choose to ignore it.

Mrs Walters continues with the lesson and after half an hour I give up with trying to follow what she's talking about. I put my pen down on the desk and rest my head in my hands, elbows resting on the table.

"Elena, why are you not doing work?" Damon asks me in a fake woman's voice that I think is supposed to sound like Mrs Walters.

"Because I don't feel like it." I shrug.

Damon moves his chair closer to mine and then whispers lightly in my ear, "Welcome to the dark side." Then he lets out an evil laugh and I roll my eyes.

"You're so weird." I sigh.

"I think you were meant to say hot instead of weird." Damon 'corrects' me and I turn to look at him. I run my eyes up and down his body slowly before shaking my head whilst meeting his eyes.

"Nope, I meant weird." I smirk.

"You're so mean." Damon pouts and then smirks back.

"I think you meant to say hot instead of mean." I mock him and Damon lets out a small laugh.

"Yeah, you're right. I did." _Wait, what? _I do a double take and look at his serious face with wide eyes. His serious look soon becomes ruined when a smirk slowly begins to make its way back across his face.

"You're so full of shit Salvatore." I shake my head and turn back to face the front again.

"You know…" Damon begins and moves closer to me again. "If you squint your eyes just a little and look hard enough at Mrs Walters, she kinda looks like Ellen Degeneres with long hair."

I do as Damon told me and squint my eyes and after a few seconds I can understand what he's talking about.

"Oh my God!" I laugh. "She totally does!"

"Told you." He smirks seeming pretty damn proud of himself.

"Wait, don't make me laugh. I still don't like you." I say pointing a finger in his direction and narrowing my eyes.

"Of course you do! Come on, admit it, I've chipped a little bit off that wall of hatred of yours." Damon whispers to me.

"Nope." I shake my head and end up laughing again when I see the pout Damon is sporting.

"See." He smirks. "I told you. It's pretty damn hard not to like me."

"Okay, so if it's hard to _not_ like you, then why did I _not _like you since freshman year?" I ask and fold my arms across my chest waiting for his answer.

"You've disliked me since freshman year?" Damon asks and I nod my head.

"Yeah, I tripped over your bag on the first day of high school and when you saw me fall, you just laughed and pointed at me."

"Really?" He laughs. "Man, I was even awesome back in freshman year!" I glare at him and Damon laughter dies down a little. "Alright, alright, that was a dick move."

"Thank you." I smile.

"You're welcome Gilbert."

"Oh, look at that. I dislike you again."

"No. I'm sorry, I meant Elena." He pleads and I shake my head. "Alright, I'll make you a deal. I won't call you Gilbert if you admit that I'm not as much of a dick as you thought I was."

I think it over before nodding my head. "Okay, seems fair." I take an over-dramatic sigh and look Damon in the eyes. "You may not be _as much_ of the dick that I thought you were… You're still _are_ a dick though." I add just to be safe.

"Thanks _Elena."_ He smirks and puts his arm around my shoulders but I glare at him and shake him off. "What, I thought we were bonding?"

"No."

XXX

I stare at the clock on the wall and just wait until the hands reach the time which tells us to go for lunch. I can't wait to get some food in me; I need the energy so much!

5 minutes later, the bell rings and I shoot out of the classroom as fast as my tiny, lifeless legs can carry me. I throw my bag and books down on the table that I spot Caroline sat at and tell her that I'll be right back. I buy some fries and an energy drink and walk back over to Caroline.

"Someone's hungry." Caroline laughs when she notices that I'm eating my fries really fast.

"I _am_ hungry, and I'm kinda hoping that food will give me the energy I need to be able to get through the rest of the day until I can get home and sleep." I explain and resume eating the fries.

"Urgh." Rebekah groans loudly and slams her book down on the table Caroline and I are sat at. "Mr Wilson is such an asshole!" She growls.

"What did he do now?" I sigh. Mr Wilson is an English teacher who absolutely _hates_ Rebekah for unknown reasons.

"He gave me detention after school because I turned up to class 5 minutes late! Like so what? It's only 5 fucking minutes!"

"Why were you 5 minutes late?"

"I was talking to that really cute boy, Matt. He's so funny!" She laughs and I guess it's at something Matt has said to her previously.

I shake my head and hear the chair next to me squeak along the floor before someone sits down in it. I just assume that it's Jeremy so I push my fries in his direction like I usually do without looking at him.

"Aww, thanks Elena." I hear _the _voice say and turn my head to spot Damon smirking at me and eating _my _fries!

"What? An hour of chemistry isn't enough time to torture me so you have to torture me at lunch now too?" I ask sarcastically.

Damon purses his lips for a few moments before nodding his head rapidly. "Yep, that's _exactly _it."

"Great!" I roll my eyes. "And give me my fries back." I snatch the box of fries from his hands and set it down on the table in front of me.

"Hey, don't be mad. I'm doing you a favour. Eating those fries would ruin that amazing figure of yours."

I turn my head away from him to discretely hide the small amount of blush on my cheeks and don't reply to him.

"Where's my brother?" Rebekah asks Damon and he shrugs.

"I don't know, I think he went outside for a smoke."

"He's _still_ smoking? I thought that he quit!" She cries.

"Well you thought wrong."

I spot Jeremy enter the cafeteria and he begins to walk over to me. When he gets a little closer, he realises Damon is sat with us and I swear I could have seen a ghost of a smile linger on his lips.

"Hey Jere." I greet when he sits down opposite me.

"What's up Jeremy." Damon leans across the table holding his fist out and goes to fist bump Jeremy. He looks down at Damon's hand confused for a second before copying him and squeezing his hand into a fist. Damon closes the gap and bumps his knuckles lightly to Jeremy's before leaning back across the table. I look at Jeremy and smile and he smiles back – a real smile.

"Hi guys." He says quietly and reaches over for the rest of the fries I have left.

"Yeah, sorry there isn't a lot left. You can blame Damon for that." I explain and point my thumb in the direction of Damon.

"Don't blame me man. Your sister practically forced them on me." He lies. "She said if I didn't eat them she'd kill my dog. But I was like, 'No Elena, those are Jeremy's'."

Jeremy actually lets out a small laugh and this makes _me_ laugh. I love my brother's laugh; I just wish that I could hear it more.

"It's okay." Jeremy reassures Damon.

Caroline and Rebekah are staring at Damon and I with a funny expression and I meet their stares. I mouth a 'what?' to them which they both just shake their heads and go back to their conversation about hair products.

"Hey Elena." I hear the sultry voice of my long-time crush greet and he sits down on the other side of me.

"Hi Mason."

"So, I was wondering what you were doing tonight?" He asks me and I purse my lips in thought before I shake my head.

"Nothing."

"Do you want to come to the movies with me?"

"Wha... Yes, sure." I stutter nervously and Mason grins.

"Great. I'll pick you up at 7 – that sound alright?"

"Yeah, 7 is great."

Mason says his goodbyes before walking back over to his group of friends. I turn back to my friends – and Damon – and sigh at their expressions.

Rebekah looks disgusted at me because I agreed to go on a date with Mason and Caroline is shaking her head. I was surprised to find that Damon didn't say anything to ruin my conversation with Mason. I was expecting some smart-ass remark, maybe even an insult in there somewhere, but he didn't say anything. When I look at his expression he's staring down at the table and has lines on his forehead as if he's confused.

"What?" I ask everybody.

"Nothing." Rebekah sighs.

The rest of the lunch period is filled with light chatter but I can't help and feel a little awkward. _But why?_ I haven't done anything wrong?

XXX

The rest of the school day passes and before I know it, it's 7 o'clock. I'm sitting on the stairs in my house just waiting for the doorbell to ring. When it finally does – at 7:20 – I take a few seconds to sit there and pretend that I wasn't waiting for Mason to arrive like some kind of stalker.

"Hey." I greet Mason when I finally open the door.

"Hi." He greets back and puts a huge grin on his face. "I'm sorry I'm late."

"No, don't apologise. It's fine." I smile back.

"You ready to go?"

"Yeah, just let me get my coat."

I grab my coat and say my goodbyes to Jeremy before following Mason to his car. He opens the door for me – such a gentleman – and we drive to the movie theatre that's situated just a little out of town. Mason picks a movie for us to watch and buys my ticket.

"Do you want to go and get a seat? I'll get some snacks for us." He tells me and I nod once before finding a seat in the nearly empty movie theatre. Mason finds me sat near the top of the huge room and sits down next to me, handing me some popcorn and a drink.

The movie starts and I cringe slightly when I notice that Mason picked a horror movie. I _hate _horror movies. _Well, I guess that I'm sleeping with the lights on tonight…._

About halfway through the movie, I feel Mason's hand reach out to hold mine. I smile at him and entwine our fingers together. A very gruesome scene suddenly comes onto the huge screen and I decided that it would be a good idea not to eat any more food in case I throw it back up again.

I feel myself slowly leaning closer to Mason and he wraps an arm around me. I stare up at him and he looks down at me. He leans forward quickly and presses his lips to mine in a bruising kiss. It's so not what I imagined kissing Mason would be like. His lips are forceful and his tongue is prying my lips apart to be able to meet mine. I suddenly feel his hand move further and further up my leg and as soon as it reaches the top part of my thigh, I place my hand on top of it and break away from the kiss.

"Wow." I chuckle. "Moving a little fast there aren't you?" I nod my head in the direction of Mason's hand on my thigh.

"I like you, you like me. Why not?" He smirks seductively.

"Because this is our first date and we're in a movie theatre." I point out obviously and widen my eyes in disbelief. _What the hell is wrong with him?_

"I'm sorry Elena, it's just I _really_ like you." He removes his hand from my thigh and I cup his face with my hands.

"It's okay, I like you too. But I'm not the kind of girl who 'puts out' on a first date. Sorry."

Mason almost looks… annoyed, disappointed maybe? I don't know but the look he's giving me definitely isn't a good one.

"Fine." He snaps and faces back to the movie. _Yep. I've pissed him off._

We watch the rest of the movie with an awkward tension around us and by the time the credits roll, I'm almost certain that I'm going to throw up.

Mason drives me home in silence and walks me to my door.

"I'm sorry about before." Mason apologises once we're stood on my porch outside the front door. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."

"It's forgotten about." I smile, even though it's definitely not forgotten about.

"I would really love to take you out again, so I can make it up to you."

"Sure." I smile and then frown when I realise that I'm not as excited about it as I should be.

"Goodnight Elena." He kisses me on the cheek and makes his way to his car, driving off into the night.

I go inside my house and let out a huge sigh once I've closed the door.

_What is wrong with you Elena?_

This is Mason! I've wanted to date him for so long!

_So why do I feel myself almost dreading the next date?..._

**A/N: So what did you think? Yey or nay? Let me know :D**

**Thanks for reading, *whispers* You're awesome.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: OMG! I was honestly blown away by the response to the last chapter! Seriously, thank you so much! It means the world to know that people like my stories :D **

EPOV

"How was your date?" is the first thing Damon asks me when I walk into class the morning after my big date with Mason.

"Fine." I shrug and take my seat next to him.

"Fine?" Damon repeats and raises his eyebrows. "It was just _fine?"_

"I mean it was good."

"Good?"

"It was okay."

"These are getting worse Elena." Damon smirks and I sigh in defeat.

"Alright, it actually wasn't that great."

"Really? I never would have guessed." He says sarcastically.

"Shut up." I mumble and hit Damon's shoulders with mine.

"Okay, so tell Dr Damon why it wasn't so great."

"Dr Damon?" I ask and bite my lip to stop from smiling.

"Well there's a Dr Phil isn't there? Why can't there be a Dr Damon?"

"Whatever." I shake my head and my roll my eyes. "Honestly, I didn't feel relaxed with Mason yesterday. Plus, it totally wasn't fun at all."

"Why wasn't it fun?"

"Well for one, Mason picked a horror movie for us to watch. I can't stand horror movies. I was like _this_ close to throwing up." I make a tiny gap between my thumb and index finger and hold it in front of Damon. "And _then _Mason went all pissy on me because I told him that I wouldn't put out on the first date. I mean, I'm sorry I'm not a slut!"

"Wait, so Mason was mad at you because you didn't want to have sex with him yesterday?"

"Yep, pretty much." I confirm and sigh loudly.

"Elena, he didn't… you know… did he?"

"He didn't what?" I ask confused.

"He didn't… make you do anything, did he?" Damon explains and I cough a little.

"No! He didn't _force _himself on me if that's what you're asking." I hiss.

"I was just checking." He holds in hands up and I shake my head at him again. "So are you going to go out with him again?"

"I think I might. I mean, he asked me out again. I might as well give it another shot, right?"

"Whatever you want to do Elena." Damon shrugs and smiles slightly at me. I suddenly burst out laughing and Damon looks at me funny. "Jesus Christ, she's lost it." He mumbles.

"I'm sorry." I say in between giggles. "I just _never _thought that I would be talking boys with big bad Damon Salvatore!"

"You and me both honey." Damon smirks and sends me a wink.

The rest of the class continues with light banter between Damon and I and I can feel a shift in our relationship. I can almost imagine us actually becoming friends – What, I said _almost._

The Chemistry class soon ends and I make my way to my next class. I spent most of my classes thinking about whether to go on another date with Mason and by lunch, I've decided that I will. I've liked this guy for so long, I might as well see if it will lead anywhere, right?

I find my brother sat with Rebekah at lunch and I make my way over to them.

"Hey guys." I greet and sit down next to Jeremy. "What are you talking about?"

"Jere was just telling me about that new video game he bought." Rebekah tells me.

"Yeah, I offered to play it with him but he told me that he needed a real opponent." I laugh.

"You suck Elena." Jeremy smiles sweetly and it makes my heart swell to see my brother actually looking happy.

"Hey!" I cry and try to look annoyed but it fails completely when Jeremy smiles again.

"What's up guys?" I hear Mason say and he invites himself to sit down on the table next to Rebekah.

"Hi Mason." I smile politely. Rebekah glares at him as if she's planning ways to murder him in her mind and Jeremy doesn't seem too pleased about Mason being here either.

"So, I had a really great time last night." Mason whispers to me across the table while Jeremy and Rebekah are engaged in a conversation.

"Yeah, me too." I lie.

"You free to do something on Friday?" Mason asks.

_This is it. Just say yes. It's not hard. Y-E-S. This is Mason for God's sake!_

"Yes." I say rather awkwardly.

"Great." Mason smiles and then turns to Jeremy. "What's up Jimmy?"

"Jeremy." I correct him, annoyed that he doesn't even know my brother's name!

"Right, that's what I meant." Mason stutters and Rebekah raises her eyebrows to me.

"Hi." Jeremy says quietly.

"So, you like cars right?" Mason asks and suddenly widens his eyes before turning to me. "He knows what cars are, right?"

"Yes! Of course he knows what cars are Mason! He hasn't been living in some hole for the past 16 years!" I hiss.

"Right sorry. So, do you?" He asks Jeremy again and Jere looks rather uncomfortable when he nods his head at Mason. "I just got a brand new Mercedes as a gift my dad. You should come and check it out sometime."

Jeremy nods his head again and starts to fiddle with his fingers. I grab his hand in mine and smile encouragingly.

"That would be great Mason. Thanks."

"It's no problem." Mason shrugs and turns around when he hears his group of friends shouting his name from across the lunch table. "I better go and see what they want." Mason tells me pointing his thumb in the direction of his friends. "Talk to you later?"

"Yep." I nod and Mason removes himself from our table before strutting over to his friends.

"What the hell was that about?" Rebekah cringes.

"What are you talking about?" I ask her and release Jeremy's hand from mine.

"Mason being nice to Jeremy. I mean no offence or anything Jere, but he's just trying to get into your sister's pants." Rebekah tells Jeremy and I widen my eyes.

"Rebekah! Can you please stop saying things like that around my brother?"

"Why? He knows what sex is."

"Yes, but that doesn't mean he wants to know when some guy is trying to _have_ sex with his sister – which he isn't by the way. Maybe he's just really that nice."

"Mason isn't nice. He's an asshole." She scolds and I sigh.

"This again? Really?"

"I'm sorry Elena but I just don't trust the guy." She explains and I narrow my eyes in thought. "Wait, do _you_ trust him?"

"Sure."

"Sure? You don't trust him do you?"

"I don't know." I sigh. "I just feel like something's wrong."

"Then why the hell did you agree to another date with him?" She asks confused.

"Because what if I'm just being paranoid? You know how long I've had a crush on Mason for, what if this is my chance with him? I don't want to ruin that just because I have a bad _feeling."_

"As long as you know what you're doing Elena." Rebekah sighs and gives me a tight smile.

"I do." I reply.

_But do I? _Why after 4 years of knowing me does Mason decide make a move _now_? I just have a gut feeling that I'm doing the wrong thing. But then again, maybe I'm just over analysing things…

XXX

After school, I decide to drive Jeremy and I to the grill for some food. When we get there we find an empty booth and order two cheeseburgers.

"Okay, what's wrong with you?" I nudge Jeremy on the arm and stare at him. "You've been acting weird since lunch."

"Nothing." He grumbles and I poke him.

"Don't nothing me mister, what's wrong?"

"It's just… I don't really like Mason." He tells me quietly and I widen my eyes in confusion.

"What are you talking about? You've been acting weird because you don't like Mason?"

"Well if you start to date him, I have to like him."

"But?" I question further.

"But I don't." He almost whispers as if he feels bad. "He's a douchebag."

I can't help it, I burst out laughing. _Jeremy actually called Mason a douchebag!_

"Damon totally put that word into your head." I chuckle and Jeremy smiles.

"I do like your friend Damon though." He informs me and I choke on my drink.

"Damon is not my friend." I assure.

"Really? He seemed like your friend yesterday?" He asks quietly and meets my eyes for the briefest of seconds.

"Well, he's not. We're just lab partners. And besides, shouldn't you hate Damon? _He's _the douchebag."

"I think he's funny." Jeremy tells me and lets out a little laugh. If I could hear one thing for the rest of my life, it would be my brother's laugh. It's so beautiful!

Our burgers arrive and Jeremy and I eat in silence. After I've paid the bill, I drive us both home and turn the engine to the car off. I spot that my mom's car is in the driveway which is strange because she's usually only back from work at around 6. I check the time on my phone and see that it's only 4:45. _Weird._

I open the front door and step inside ahead of Jeremy. At first, I only notice a few empty bottle of some kind of alcohol leading up to the couch… but then I notice my mom and I swear my heart stops beating.

"MOM!"

**A/N: Dun dun dun! **

**I apologise for this chapter being shorter than my other chapters, but I tried my best :( **

**Let me know what you think… **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I have absolutely no idea how to thank you guys for the reviews that I've been receiving for this story. You're all amazing! Thank you so much! Let's be friends…**

EPOV

These past 10 hours have been the worst of my entire life – and I've some pretty bad times in my life. Jeremy being diagnosed with autism, my dad leaving, my pet hamster Candyfloss dying when I was 8 years old. But this, _this _topped everything. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life.

My mom drank too much alcohol and ended up with alcohol poisoning. She lost control of her reflex's and when she threw up, she chocked on her own vomit and passed out.

As soon as I saw her lying on the couch and going blue in the face from lack of oxygen I called an ambulance. I sent Jeremy to his bedroom and tried everything I could to help my mom until the ambulance got here.

When it _finally_ did, after what felt like hours but was really no longer than 8 minutes, I was bombarded with a billion questions on my mom's condition – Okay, a _billion_ is a slight exaggeration, but my point is, it was a lot.

I drove both me and Jeremy to the hospital and we waited for news on our mom's condition. She had her stomach pumped and had to be hooked to an IV drip to get fluids into her body again. We waited there for several hours before the doctors finally told us to go home.

So, here I am now, driving back home at 2:30 in the morning. When I enter the house, I cleaned up the mess in the living room and give Jeremy a much needed hug. I make us both hot chocolates and tell Jeremy to sleep in my bedroom with me tonight – partly for him but mostly for me. I don't really want to be alone after seeing my own mother in that condition.

"Elena." Jeremy whispers quietly in the darkness of my room from the opposite end of my bed.

"Yes Jere?" I whisper back.

"Is mom going to be okay?"

"Yeah. She's going to be fine." I reassure him but I have trouble believing it myself. As selfish as this sounds, I sometimes wish that I had another sibling. I just want someone to reassure and protect me like I do to Jeremy. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change the way Jeremy is for the world, to me he is a perfect brother, I just want someone to look after _me_ for a change. God knows my mom can't do it.

It's times like this that I really dislike my mom. How bad does that sound - Saying that I sometimes can't even stand to be in the same room as the woman who gave birth to me? What would have happened if we had stayed at the grill longer than we had? Would she have die- No, I can't even say it. If me and Jeremy lost our mom, who would take of us? I can't do it, I'm not 18 yet.

I close my eyes and try to block out the images of my mom lay on the couch and blue in the face. I pray for a peaceful sleep without nightmares – but it never comes.

XXX

When I wake up the next morning, I must have had around 2 hours sleep in total. I'm tired but I can't sleep. I look over to the bottom of my bed and see Jeremy is still asleep. I look at the clock on my bedside table and see that's it 9:00. I'm late for school – not that I would have gone anyway. I think I definitely deserve a day off today.

I stretch the nooks and kinks in my back and remove myself from my plump pillows and soft mattress. I go downstairs and fix myself a cup of coffee. I switch the TV on and I don't know how long I sit there for before Jeremy rushes downstairs.

"Elena! We're late for school." He cries the loudest I've ever heard him talk. When Jeremy gets upset or panicked, he tends to be over emotional, as if his emotions are heightened. I don't know if that's a symptom of autism or whether that is just part of Jeremy's personality.

"Jere, relax." I sooth calmly. "I thought we could stay home today, do a little brother sister bonding." I smirk and Jeremy soon relaxes his posture.

"Okay." He goes back to his quiet tone of voice and flops down on the couch next to me. "So, what do you want to do?"

"I don't know, any ideas?" I ask and he shrugs.

"We could play my video game."

"I thought I wasn't a worthy opponent for you oh-wise-one." I laugh and Jeremy smiles.

"You're not." He confirms. "But an awful opponent is better than no opponent."

"Okay then, go and get it." I smile and Jeremy gives a toothy grin before running upstairs and grabbing his favourite video game.

XXX

Jere and I have been playing his video game for the past few hours and I've begun to realise that he's right – _I do suck_. I'm so bad as this game that there should be an award for how bad I actually am.

"God damit!" I yell and throw the controller down on the floor. "How are you so good at this?"

"Practice." He answers me and I huff. The doorbell suddenly rings and I look at Jeremy who looks back at me. _Who the hell would be at our house now? _It's only 1 in the afternoon. My friends are at school and my mom isn't being discharged from the hospital until later this afternoon.

I stand up from where I've been sat on the living room floor on shaky legs as I haven't moved in 4 hours and answer the door.

"Surprise!" Damon yells – and I mean _yells –_ when I open the door slightly.

"Damon? How did you know where I lived?" I ask confused.

"A friend of a friend. Well actually, it was more like a sister of a friend." He smirks and I frown.

"Rebekah told you?" I question and he nods his head. "What are you doing here?"

"Well _someone_ skipped school today, so I thought that I would bring you the notes from chemistry." He tells me and hands me a few pieces of paper filled with Damon's boyish handwriting.

"Thanks." I say and take the papers from him before narrowing my eyes at him. "Wait a minute, you never take notes…"

"What can I say? I'm just _such _a good friend." He smirks and I narrow my eyes even more. "Look Elena, I know how hard you work in school so I thought I would bring you the work you missed today. It's no big deal."

"But it is a big deal Damon. You never write anything down in chemistry. Actually no, you never even glance up from your phone except when you're annoying me and now you bring me notes? And besides, shouldn't you still be in school?"

"Oh please, I have everything I need in life right up here." He points to his head with his finger and taps a few times. "Well, aren't you going to invite me in?"

"And why would I do that?"

"Because I took the time to actually listen to Mrs Walters today in class to be able to write down several unless pieces of information for _you_. Do you even know how dull that woman is? Then, I had to actually engage in a conversation with Rebekah Mikaelson of all people to be able to get her to slip up about where you live. _Then_, I had to sneak out of school grounds to drive all the way here to be able to give you those notes which cost me an hour of my life that I will never receive back. Now tell me Elena, do you actually have the heart to turn me away after all that?" He says seriously and crosses his arms over his chest.

"Fine." I sigh. "Come in." I open the door a little wider to be able to let Damon in and I realise that I'm still wearing my PJ's when Damon's eyes widen and move up and down my body.

"Jesus Elena, you didn't have to dress up for me." Damon says sarcastically and chuckles.

"I didn't know that you were coming here dick. Now, if you don't want to be kicked off my property, I suggest that you shut that pretty little mouth of yours Salvatore." I smirk.

"You think that my mouth is pretty?" Damon whispers in my ear and puts his hand on my hip. I intake a sharp breath from the closeness of Damon before come to my senses and smack his hand away from my hip.

"No, it's a figure of speech." I tell him and he rolls his eyes.

"Believe what you will Elena." He steps away from me and spots Jeremy still sat on the living room floor and playing the game.

"Hey Jeremy." Damon greets and sits down in the spot I was previously sat at on the floor. "Oh man, I love this game." He picks up the controller that I was using and begins to play with Jeremy. I smile happily when I notice Jeremy is finally happy to have someone who is a worthy opponent.

"Jeremy, I'm going to go upstairs and change. Will you be okay for a few minutes?" I ask him and he nods without taking his eyes from the screen, his tongue sticking out a little from concentration. I shake my head at the two teenage boys in my living room before heading upstairs and getting dressed.

I open my closet and begin to root through the mountain of clothes I have buried in there. I need something pretty – wait, what? No, why do I need to find something pretty? What because Damon is downstairs? No. That's not it. Damon being in my house has absolutely nothing to do with me taking a good 10 minutes to pick my clothes out instead of picking out the first thing I can find and praying that they go together. Definitely not. Nope. Nada. No.

I eventually pick out a cute little pink top and a skirt. I re-straighten my hair and add a little make-up. I check myself over in the mirror before heading downstairs to the two guys in my living room.

"I'm back." I announce as soon as my foot leaves the last step and I step into the living room. I get two grunts as responses and Damon doesn't even bother to lift his eyes away from the video game. I huff and sit down on the couch opposite them. I watch the screen and can feel Damon's eyes look over at me every now and then. I smile that I at least managed to get a small response out of him. That's better than nothing, right? Wait, why do I want Damon's response? Stop it Elena. This is _Damon._

I watch Jeremy throw his fist up in the air and Damon huffs.

"I win." Jeremy smiles.

"Yeah, you beat me again." Damon sighs and looks over at me before winking.

"I'm going to go and get some food." Jeremy tells Damon and practically runs to the kitchen happily.

"Thankyou." I tell Damon once Jeremy has left the room and he furrows his eyebrows in confusion.

"For what?" He asks.

"For being nice to my brother."

"Well it's not exactly a chore Elena, you're brother's cool."

"Yeah, _I _know that he is. Other people though, not so much." I explain.

"Well, I do. And besides, who cares what other people think? I say fuck them." Damon smirks and I laugh.

"Yeah." I agree.

Damon stands up from sitting on the floor and sits down on the couch in the space next to me.

"How come you didn't come to school today anyway?" He asks me and watches my reaction closely.

"I'm sick." I lie and look down at the floor.

"You don't look sick."

"Oh, well…I meant that Jeremy is sick."

"Nope." Damon shakes his head. "He doesn't look sick either."

"Well he is." I whisper quietly. Damon softly puts his hand under my chin to bring my face up so that he can meet my eyes.

"Don't lie to me Elena." He says softly. I go to say something back to him but my breath gets caught in my throat by the look swimming in Damon's blue eyes. I don't recognise that look – It's not a look that I've ever seen Damon wear before – but he should. It suits him. Damon and I continue to stare at each other for a few moments and I'm positive that I can see him lean in even so slightly, before Jeremy lets out an awkward cough to let his presence back in the room known.

Damon and I snap out of our gaze before turning to face Jeremy who looks slightly embarrassed.

"I… I'm sorry." Jeremy stutters nervously and begins to back away so he ends up in the kitchen again.

"No. Don't worry about it Jeremy." Damon lets out an awkward cough and stands up. "I better go anyway." He says but doesn't make eye contact with me. He heads for the front door and pats Jeremy on the shoulder. "See you later Jere."

"Bye Damon." Jeremy smiles and Damon reaches his hand out for the door handle. He rests his hand there for a few moments before pausing and turning slightly so that he's facing me. He finally meets my eyes and gives me a small smile.

"Bye 'Lena." He says quietly and disappears out of my house, closing the door softly behind him.

I sigh loudly and lean back into the pillows on the couch. I run my hand over my face when suddenly, a realisation hits me. Rebekah was totally right!

I just had eye-sex with Damon Salvatore for the second time! I'm such a slut…

**A/N: So, Elena's mom is okay! I planned to kill her off, but I just couldn't do it. What can I say, I'm just not capable of murder…**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that it makes up for the cliff hanger that I left you with last chapter. **

**Let me know what you think…**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to update. I have loads of exams coming up in the next few weeks and I've being working my ass off to make sure that I pass them. **

**I promise to try and update as often as I can. Once these exams are over, I promise to update frequently again! :D **

EPOV

"Elena! Thank God you're back! It was so boring without you." Caroline shouts to me when I get into school the next day.

My mom came home last night and I _begged _her not to drink anymore. She said she wouldn't, but what she says and what she does tend to be two totally different things.

"I was only gone for one day Care." I laugh and she glares at me.

"Exactly, that's one whole day of not seeing my best friend and her brother."

I roll my eyes at Caroline's over-dramaticness and say my goodbyes to her before heading to chemistry. It was so sweet of Damon to bring me notes yesterday from class. But I don't understand why he would do that, doesn't he hates me?

I enter my chemistry classroom and take my seat when I notice that Damon isn't here yet.

20 minutes in the class, Damon swings the door open and smirks at Mrs Walters.

"You're late." Mrs Walter tells Damon and crosses her arms over her chest.

"I got lost." He shrugs even though he's been at this school since freshman year.

Most people in the class are laughing at Damon and I shake my head.

"Just take your seat Mr Salvatore." Mrs Walters sighs and continues teaching the lesson.

"Elena, nice to have you back." Damon nods before stepping past me to take his seat on my left.

"I know." I smile cockily.

"You've been hanging around with me way too much." Damon laughs and I pull a horrified face.

"Oh my God, you're right. Who would have thought, huh?" I giggle and my eyes drift down from Damon's face to his knuckles which I notice are all bruised and cut. "Hey what happened there?"

Damon follows my gaze down to his knuckles and smirks. "I got into a fight with Samuel Collins last night." He says rather smugly.

"Oh my God, are you okay?" I ask concerned for some reason and run my fingers over his knuckles. Damon tenses a little when he feels my fingers but relaxes after a few moments.

"I'm fine." He says softly. I can feel Damon's eyes on me as I soothe his knuckles with my fingers but I don't dare meet them. Suddenly he lets out a soft chuckle and I remove my fingers feeling kind of embarrassed.

"You know Elena, if I didn't know any better I think that you were worried about me?" I hear him say lightly and I laugh a little.

"Well then it's a good think you _do _know better." I reply and find the courage to meet his eyes with mine, smiling a small smile which he returns.

Mrs Walters continues the lesson and I am able to keep up with the class due to the notes that Damon brought me yesterday.

"Thanks for the notes." I burst out randomly.

"You already thanked me Elena, don't worry about it." Damon tells me and smiles.

I drop it and go back to concentrating on the lesson – but I can't. The only thing I can concentrate on is how close Damon's arm is to mine. _What the fuck is wrong with me?_

XXX

DPOV

_What the fuck is wrong with me? _Lately I can't concentrate on anything because of one reason. Elena fucking Gilbert. The girl I love to hate. Or do I?

This past week I can't stop thinking about her – which freaks me out. I _never _think about just one girl, but I am. I deliberately went a picked a fight with Samuel Collins yesterday just to try and give me something else to do other than think about Elena.

I spent the whole chemistry lesson practically freaking out because I couldn't concentrate on anything except how hot Elena looked today. Hell, she looked _beautiful._

Holy shit, this is serious! I never use the word beautiful!

"Urgh." I groan loudly at the lunch table and Klaus raises his eyebrows at me.

"The fuck is wrong with you?" He asks.

"Nothing." I snap which Klaus replies to with a laugh and holds his hands out in front of him.

I look over to Elena's table and see her laughing with her friends and brother. She's cute when she laughs. Her nose wrinkles slightly and her cheeks turn a light shade of pink.

…I think I need help.

I groan again but nobody dares to say anything to me this time in case I take a tip out of Bruce Lee's book and open up a can of whoop ass.

I see Mason Fuckwood – sorry Lockwood – stalk his way over to Elena likes she's some kind of prey. He sits opposite her and they begin to chat between themselves before she laughs flirtatiously and places her hand on his arm. I feel a horrible feeling boil up inside me that I _really_ don't like. It's not jealously. It's not! I don't get jealous. I'm Damon fucking Salvatore! Girls take one look at me and their panties practically fly off themselves. I could get any girl I wanted…. Any girl at all… Motherfucker! is he playing footsie with her!

…Not jealous. Nope.

Suddenly I feel a tap on my shoulder and I turn around ready to knock someone out from disturbing me drool over Elena when I see it's her brother, Jeremy.

"Oh, hey Jeremy." I mumble and calm down a little. I like this kid, he's cool. Not much of a talker, but cool none the less.

"Hi Damon." He replies in the quiet voice that he normally speaks in. He looks nervous but I think that it's because he's around a group of my asshole friends. "Erm, I was wondering if you wanted to do something later?"

"Jeremy, I like you and all but I'm not into guys." I tease with a smile which makes Jeremy let out a small laugh. "Yeah, sure man. What did you have in mind?"

"I'm going to the grill later. Elena is meeting Mason there so she can drive me."

_Elena huh?_ _With Mason? _This could be interesting…

"Yeah, sure I'll see you there."

Jeremy blows out a large breath and relaxes his shoulders as if he's relieved by my answer. "Okay." He says quickly. "See you later." He smiles, walking away from me and back over to Elena.

"So, are you going to invite me on your date?" Douchebag Alex sitting on the left of me laughs loudly and teases Jeremy once he has left. All the other guys on the table fidget awkwardly while Alex laughs and Klaus lets out a loud whistle.

"Shut your fucking mouth douche before I shut it for you." I exclaim.

Alex stops laughing and lets out an awkward cough when he sees everyone else on the table shaking their heads at him.

"Sorry man, it was just a joke."

"Well it wasn't very funny now was it? Jeremy's cool and he doesn't need assholes like you bitching about him." I push away from the table and stand up before I lose my cool again and flip out. I walk away from the table and just before I leave the cafeteria, I hear some of the guys warning Alex not to piss me off again.

_Smartest thing they've done all day._

**A/N: I know that this chapter wasn't very long, I just needed a filler chapter for the next one. I already have an idea of what I'm going to do and it's going to be a big one so don't miss it! ;)**

**Thanks for reading this even though it has taken me so long to update and again I'm sorry. **

**P.S. Thanks so much for all of your reviews! 10 POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR! **


	8. Chapter 8

EPOV

"Hey Jere, I'm heading to the grill now!" I yell upstairs to my baby brother who's currently in his bedroom.

"Wait!" He yells back, slightly out of breath and runs down the stairs. "Can you take me with you?"

"Erm, sure, but I'm meeting Mason. I thought you didn't like him?" I ask confused.

"I don't. I'm meeting Damon." He explains and my jaw drops to the floor.

"Damon?"

"Yeah."

"You're meeting _Damon. _As in Damon Salvatore?"

"…Yes. Damon Salvatore."

My eyes widen a little and Jeremy places his hand underneath my jaw before pushing slightly so that my open mouth closes.

"Okay then." I say rather awkwardly. "You ready to go?"

He nods his head and walks past me to the front door. I stare at his back for a few seconds before following him to the car. As I drive us both to the grill, I switch the radio on and search for a song that I like.

"Hell yes!" I squeal and switch the radio up, singing along to the familiar song at the top of my voice.

'_Making my way downtown, walking fast, faces pass and I'm homebound." _

"Elena." Jeremy whines. "I hate this song."

"Suck it up. You know the rules, driver picks the song." I tease and pat his cheek.

'_Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles, if I can just see you tonight!'_

After 10 glorious minutes of song surfing, we arrive at the grill and I see Damon getting out of his Camaro.

"Well Well, little Elena Gilbert. I had no idea that you were going to be here." He greets me and the sly smile on his face tells me that he knew _exactly _where I was going to be. I roll my eyes and hide the smile on my face.

"Jeremy, do you want to go inside. I just need to ask Damon something." I tell my brother and he nods his head before fist bumping Damon and heading inside the grill.

"So, what did you want to ask me? How is it possible to be _this_ good-looking? Well, I'll tell my secret 'Lena. Firstly, you have to be willing to work out like, all the time. You don't get a body like a God by doing nothing you know? Secondly, you have to-"

"-Damon just shut up a minute okay? I don't want to ask you or your ego anything. I want to warn you."

"Warn me?" Damon scoffs. "About what?"

"About messing with Jeremy." I shrug.

"Messing with Jeremy? What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about tricking Jeremy into thinking that you want to hang around with him. I swear, if you're just using him for something-"

"Woah Elena, do you really think that low of me? I happen to like Jeremy. I wouldn't use him like that." Damon reasons.

"Good." I nod. "Because if you hurt him, I'll cut your balls off and feed them to you through a straw."

"Mmm, kinky." Damon smirks and wraps his arm around me. We enter the grill, still with Damon's arm around my shoulders and I spot Jeremy sitting down on a table in the corner of the grill fidgeting with his hands nervously.

"Oh, there's lover-boy." Damon says and points his finger in the direction of Mason who is sat at a table and staring daggers at Damon. I turn to face Damon and jab a finger in his chest.

"Remember what we talked about." I say with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes ma'am." He salutes and winks to me before making his way over to Jeremy.

"Hey." I say gently when I reach Mason.

"What were you doing with Damon?" He asks angrily and I sigh before sitting down opposite him.

"Nothing, we were just messing around."

"It didn't look like messing around to me. He had his arm around you Elena." He hisses.

"Well we _were_ messing around. And it doesn't even matter if he had his arm around me because you're not my boyfriend Mason, you don't have a right to be jealous." I reply, feeling myself becoming more irritated with his attitude towards me right now.

"You're right." He sighs and looks down towards the table. "I just thought that you were interested in me."

"Mason, you know that I am." I say and place my hand over his that's currently resting on the table.

"Let's just forget this happened, okay?" He suggests and I nod enthusiastically.

"Okay." I grin. "How was your day?"

"Good. We got someone new guy on the football team today. He's a bit slow but I really think that he'd be good for the team."

"That's… great." I lie with a fake smile on my face. Football is definitely on Elena's _don't-give-a-shit-about_ list.

"How was yours?" He asks kindly.

"Fine." I nod. "I had to catch up from yesterday's classes but it was fine. Well, except for chemistry."

"Why's that?" He asks and plays with the straw in his drink disinterested.

"Damon brought me notes from yesterday's class." I shrug and his eyes shoot up from staring at his drink to my face.

"What? He brought you notes? Like to your house?"

"Yes. What's wrong with that?" I ask.

"It's so obvious Elena, the guy's into you!" He cries and I stare at him for a few moments before bursting out laughing.

"What?" I laugh.

"He brought you _notes_! No straight guy does anything nice for a girl unless he wants to sleep with her."

"So, everything nice you've ever done for me is because you want to sleep with me?" I argue.

"No." He sighs. "That's not what I meant."

"Mason, this is Damon we're talking about. He's not _into _me, believe me. We can barely tolerate each other. He probably only brought me notes so that I could continue to do all the work for him in class." I reassure, although I'm not entirely sure why I feel the need to.

Mason grumbles something under his breath that I don't quite catch and goes back to playing with the straw in his drink. I run a hand through my hair frustrated and look around the grill to find Damon and Jeremy over by the pool tables and laughing. I've never seen Jeremy laugh the way he does around Damon. Even I can't make him laugh like that. Maybe all he really needs is a male figure in his life.

XXX

Mason managed to cool down from our little tiff before, and we've been having a good time so far. That is until Damon and Jeremy decide that it would be fun to totally crash our date.

"Ahh, if it's isn't the love birds." Damon smirks and sits down next to me with Jeremy following.

"Not now Damon." I say through gritted teeth but he sends me an overly sweet smile and turns to Mason.

"Mason, good to see you man."

"Yeah, wish I could say the same." Mason grins sarcastically.

"Ouch. Someone's got their tampon stuck up too far."

"Damon!" I squeal. "Stop."

"What? Sorry, I can't hear you." He says and makes his hand cup his ear. I lean forward and whisper,

"Stop."

"No Elena, I will not have sex with you in the bathroom!" He yells loudly for everyone to hear, including Mason. I can feel my face heating up in embarrassment and I look down at my hands.

"So, Jere and I were just talking about the douchebags of the school." Damon informs us and sends Mason an apologetic look. "I'm afraid your name came up a few times."

"Yeah, you made our top 3." Jeremy nods and I glare at him.

"Jeremy!" I look away from Jeremy to face Damon who is biting on his lip to stop from laughing. "Stop corrupting my brother. You're turning him into you."

"No I'm not." He waves me off with his hand before wrapping the same arm around me again.

"Look Damon, no-one really wants you here so why don't you do everyone a favour and skedaddle." Mason says and makes a 'go away' gesture with his hand.

"Oh but that's where you're wrong Mason. Elena wants me here, don't you?" Damon asks with a sultry tone.

"Not really." I deadpan.

"Liar." He whispers in my ear sexily.

"That's it, I'm done!" Mason announces suddenly and pushes away from the table.

"Mason, where are you going?" I ask and push Damon's arm away from my shoulders so that I can stand up.

"I'm not going to sit here and watch this dick flirt with you." He whisper-yells and points in Damon's direction who has an amused smirk on his face. He sends me one more look before turning on his heel and storming out of the grill.

"Great seeing you Mase!" Damon yells after him.

"Are you happy now?" I ask and cross my arms over my chest angrily.

"Oh come on Elena, I was just kidding around."

"No, you pissed him off on purpose." I point out.

"Well, yeah." He nods honestly and pulls me back down to him again. "Look, forget about him okay? You can do some much better than Jerk-wood anyway."

"No!" I shout and push him away from me. "Just because _you_ can't get anyone to date you, doesn't mean that you ruin it for me."

I storm out of the grill, completely forgetting about my brother and find Mason leaning against his car.

"I'm sorry about him." I apologise and walk up to his car.

"Forget about it." He says but I can see that he's still annoyed at Damon. "Look, how about we just get out of here before anything else happens?"

"Where else can we go?" I ask and look around me.

"My house." He shrugs.

"I don't know." I cringe.

"Why not? I just want to get out of here."

"Okay." I sigh after a few minutes.

"Lead the way." I say and climb into my car before following Mason to his house.

XXX

"I think she's pissed at you." Jeremy announces as we watch Elena storm out of the grill.

"Yeah, I think so too." I sigh.

I didn't mean to piss her off, I just wanted to get her away from Lockwood – and I did, for about 12 seconds.

"Don't worry." Jeremy shows a small smile. "My sister has a major problem with forgiving people too easily."

"I'm not worried." I deny and cough awkwardly.

"Sure." Jeremy nods but I know that he doesn't believe me. I did spend most of the time here with him watching his sister, so that might have given it away that I have a thing for her.

"Come on. I'll drive you home." I tell him and stand up with Jeremy following me. Jere and I begin to walk through the grill to get to the exit when a conversation between two guys from school catches my attention.

"Dude, he said that he's taking her back to his as we speak." One of the guys known as Jake laughs and pats the other guy, Peter on the back.

"Oh man." Peter sighs. "I didn't think that he'd do it."

"I did." Jake says confidently.

"Who'd have thought, huh? Elena Gilbert is easy." Peter says and shakes his head disapprovingly.

"Hey guys." I greet and walk up to their table. "What's going on?"

"D…Damon?" Jake stutters nervously. "What…What are you doing here?"

I may or may not have wedgied Jake every day back in sophomore year. I think he might still be a _little _scared of me.

"Nothing." I shrug. "I just heard your conversation and thought I'd see what's going on. So, Elena Gilbert, huh?

"Oh, you know about the bet too?" Peter asks and I stare at him.

"What bet?"

"You know, the bet?" He says again and when I shake my head no he widens his eyes.

"Never mind." He mumbles.

"Oh come on guys, you've got me interested. What bet are you talking about?" I grin.

"He's just messing with you Damon." Jake tries to laugh but it comes off a little forced.

"Look, one of you better tell me about this bet. Now." I warn and drop the nice tone. _Nice never was my thing anyway._

Peter and Jake look at each other nervously but don't say anything. I sigh loudly and look back at Jeremy who slowly gets the message that I'm sending him and backs away from the table a little. I launch across the table and grab Jake by the collar on his shirt before pushing him up against the wall.

"Look Jakey, I'm done playing nice. What bet are you talking about and what does it have to do with Elena Gilbert?"

"Nothing Damon." Jake insists through wide eyes and a shaky breath. "There is no bet."

"Do you think I'm an idiot Jake?" I ask him and when he shakes his head rapidly I continue. "Well don't lie to me then. I'm going to give you three seconds to tell me what bet you're talking about before I cause some damage."

"One." I count and Jake looks back at Peter who is staring at him in shock.

"Two."

Nothing.

"Thr-"

"Mason bet that he could get Elena Gilbert to have sex with him."

**A/N: Sorry for waiting so long to update. Life got in the way.**

**So there we have it, the real motive behind Mason's interest in Elena.**

**Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think…**


	9. Chapter 9

DPOV

I released my grip on Jake's collar, which in turn makes him fall flat on his ass. I turn to face Jeremy who was looking at me with wide eyes before moving my gaze over to Peter who was looking down at the floor guiltily.

I fight every urge I have to beat these two idiots asses right here, right now and instead focus all of my attention on Jeremy.

"Come on, we're leaving." I tell him and gently grab him by the elbow and lead him out of the grill to my car. As I bring my baby to life, I throw my phone in Jeremy's lap and tell him to call Elena.

"She's not picking up." Jeremy tells me after the second try of calling her and I let out an inhumane growl of annoyance. I pull out of the grill parking lot and Jeremy glances at me with worried eyes.

"What are we going to do?" He asks, he voice extremely quiet that I had to strain my ears to hear what he asked.

"I don't know." I mutter. "Where do you think she'll be?"

"Maybe she went home?" He suggests and I nod my head in agreement before heading in the direction of the Gilbert residence. I pull up on the side of the curb and Jeremy opens the front door with his house key before rushing inside and up the stairscase.

"Elena?" I call out and travel the entire circuit of the ground floor of the house; living room, kitchen, dining room, study. Nothing.

"Anything?" I ask Jeremy when he comes back downstairs again.

"No." He shakes his head and I can feel his eyes pleading with me to find his sister and get her away from the dickwad that is Mason.

"Let's go." I tell him and feel him follow me back to my car. I start her up for the second time and speed down the quiet streets of Mystic Falls.

"Where are we going?" Jeremy asks and looks out of the car window at the passing houses and trees.

"To Lockwood's." I reply but suddenly slam my hand on my steering wheel in frustration when I realise I don't exactly know _where _Lockwood's is. "Fuck! Do you know Mason's address?"

"No."

I spin my wheel quickly so that my car ends up doing a sharp U-turn and head in the direction of someone who does.

Around 6 minutes later, I pull up outside of Klaus' house and Jeremy follows me out of the car. I knock on the door and it opens to reveal just the person I wanted to see.

"My brother's not here." Rebekah 'greets' and her eyes move from my face to Jeremy who is standing behind me. "Jeremy?"

"Hi 'Bekah." He replies and gives her a shy wave.

"What are you doing with Damon?" She asks Jeremy but I answer for him.

"We're BFF's now." I say with an eye roll. "Do you know where Mason lives?"

"Mason? Mason Lockwood? Why would you want to know where Mason lives? I thought you didn't like him?"

"I don't but I _need_ to know where he lives." I stress.

"Why?"

"Because I think Elena's with him."

"…So?" She asks with a raised eyebrow and then places a smug smirk on her face. "Oh! I know what this is about? You like Elena."

"Well we are lab partners Rebekah. I've begun to realise that it's a lot easier to get along with people if you actually like them."

"No you idiot. You _like _her."

"What are we five?" I scoff. "And no, I don't _like _her."

"Well why else would you want to know where Mason lives?" She asks and crosses her arms over her chest as if she has just caught me out.

"Mason made a bet that he could get Elena to sleep with him." Jeremy blurts out quickly and I nod my head in agreement.

_Silence. _That's the only thing I can hear for the next 30 seconds before Rebekah's features slowly turn from shock to confusion to understanding to anger– and not just any anger, _Barbie anger_. The worst kind there is.

"That stupid prick! I knew there was something off about him! I fucking _knew_ it!" She rants and begins to pace back and forth. "I told Elena to be careful around him, but _no_! She's so bloody stubborn! No-body ever listens to little ol' me! And now they're together. What if she _does_ sleep with him? Then what? How used is she going to feel? Wait until I get my hands on Mason! That lying, deceiving, stupid motherfu-"

"Rebekah!" I yell and interrupt her mid-rant, even if it is entertaining to watch. "Address?"

"Oh right." She shakes her head and switches back into calm mode before giving me Mason's address. I jog back to my car and hear Jeremy send Rebekah the polite thank you that I didn't give her before following me as we continue our _save Elena_ mission.

"I feel like Tom Cruise right now." I try to joke as we fly down the streets of Mystic Falls – with me actually knowing where to go this time. Jeremy shows a smile at my attempt of a joke but I don't fail to notice how forced it looks. "Don't worry Jere. Nothing's going to happen to Elena." I reassure him and he sends me a smile again, this time completely genuine.

I mentally pat myself on the back for getting Jeremy to smile; even it was for just a few seconds, before concentrating back onto my navigating.

XXX

EPOV

"Thanks." I smile to Mason when he hands me the glass of water that I asked for. We're currently sat in his far too big living room on one of the gigantic couches, my feet now resting on Mason's lap.

"I'm glad that you decided to come back with me Elena." Mason grins and rubs the bottom of my legs lightly through my jeans.

"Yeah." I fake smile. "Me too.

I pull my phone out from my jeans pocket and look down to see two missed calls from Damon as well as three missed calls and a text message from Rebekah. Just as I'm about to open the message, Mason's hand moves a little _too_ far up my leg and I yank my feet away from his lap quickly. Mason's hand hovers in the air and he sends me a questioning look which I laugh nervously to.

"Sorry. I'm ticklish." I lie but Mason seems to buy it.

As he begins to scoot a little closer to me again, I stand up from the couch and walk over to the old grand piano he has in the corner of the living room.

"This is amazing." I say in awe as my fingers trace the decorative pattern on the antique wood.

"Yeah." Mason agrees and follows me over to the piano. "It's been in my family for years."

"Can you play?" I ask him and show a toothy grin when he nods his head yes. "Play me something."

"I'm not really that good." He laughs nervously but I'm not giving up.

"So? Just play me something."

"Fine." He sighs and sits down on the piano stool. He fingers begin to move over the keys gracefully as he plays a tune that I don't recognise but immediately like anyway. I place one elbow on top of the piano and rest my head on that hand, watching Mason with wide eyes. I notice his feet moving swiftly on the pedals and every so often his eyes move away from the keyboard to meet mine before glancing back down to make sure that he is playing the right notes. After a few minutes, Mason drags his fingers across the entire length of the keyboard and smirks at me cockily. I cheer and clap my hands together as Mason stands up from the stool and takes a dramatic bow.

"You're such a liar! '_I'm not really that good'_. Oh please, that was amazing!" I laugh lightly and punch him in the shoulder blade. "I wish I could play."

"I'll teach you." He says and pats the piano stool with his hand while grinning at me. Once I'm sat down in front of the piano, Mason sits down next to me so that we both squeeze onto the stool. He places his left hand over my right and guides my fingers along the keys, pressing down every so often. He tells me which keys to press with my left hand and after a few first unsuccessful tries; I begin to play a very slow song. I sound completely horrible but I can't bring myself to care.

After I've completed the only chords that I know, I turn to face Mason with a wide smile and he smiles back before crashing his lips onto mine in a sudden bruising kiss. My eyes widen for a few moments before I realise that I'm not kissing him back and begin to retaliate. Mason's lips press harder against mine and I feel his tongue sweep along my bottom lip before tearing my lips apart and ramming into my mouth. I groan in discomfort at the sudden intrusion but Mason must mistake it for a moan of pleasure because one of his hands comes to tighten in my hair while the other wraps around my waist so that I'm pulled tightly to his body.

I place my hands on his chest and use every amount of strength I have in my arms to push him away so that I am able to breathe again.

"Mason, what are we doing?" I ask him, still completely breathless from the lack of oxygen in my body.

"Having fun." He shrugs and goes to pull me back into a kiss but I stop him.

"No." I tell him and he groans in frustration.

"Come on Elena, what's the big deal? I like you and you like me, why not?"

"I don't want to Mason." I state and go to stand up from the piano stool but he grabs my wrist and pulls me back down. He pushes his lips against mine again and I yelp in surprise before attempting to push him away a third time. When he doesn't budge, his lips move down to kiss my neck, his tongue darting out against my skin and I can feel vomit rising up in the back of my throat.

"Mason, stop." I warn him and attempt to push him away yet again but he's far too heavy for me to move.

"Just relax." He whispers huskily in my ear before biting down a little too hard on my earlobe. _How the hell can I relax when I have a Mason attached to my face?_

"Mason no. Get off me." I almost yell and continue to push at his shoulders. "What is wrong with you?"

He attempts to push my jacket off my shoulders but I grip it tightly around my body and bring my hand up to slap him on the back of the head.

"What the hell?" He cries and rubs the back of his head while glaring at me angrily.

"I told you to stop!"

"Stop being so dramatic. It's obvious that you were enjoying it." He sighs and rolls his eyes.

"I don't find anything particularly enjoyable about being kissed unwillingly."

"Don't be such a fucking prude Elena!" He says, his voice becoming slightly louder.

"Excuse me?" I scoff. "Just because I don't want to have sex with you on a piano stool doesn't make me a _prude_ Mason."

"Look, I'm sorry okay?" He sighs again and runs a hand through his hair. "I thought this was what you wanted."

"Well it wasn't." I scold and cross my arms over my chest. Mason opens his mouth to reply to me but closes it when loud constant knocking comes from the direction of the front door.

Mason shoots me a _stay-here_ look and scurries away to answer the door. I hear the door creak open and then a sudden cry of pain hits my ear drums.

"You fucking prick." I hear someone all but growl and the voice strikes me as familiar.

"What the fuck?" Mason yelps out.

"Where is she?" The voice says again but this time I recognise it.

"Damon?" I call out and walk in the direction of the front door. "Jeremy? What… What are you doing here?" It's then that I notice Mason on the floor cradling his cheek with one hand.

I turn back to Damon with shocked eyes and notice the anger in his.

"You punched him?" I shriek and point in the direction of Mason who is slowly standing up from the floor.

"Yes, I punched him! This guy is a fucking asshole Elena!" He yells, his breathing becoming slightly faster, either due to rage or due to adrenaline.

"Get the fuck out of my house." Mason growls at Damon and my baby brother and I look at all three guys in confusion. Mason and Damon begin to argue loudly between each other and I turn to Jeremy who is glaring at Mason and scrunching his hands up into fists.

"What the hell is going on!" I yell and both Damon and Mason both stop arguing and look at me.

Damon pushes Mason slightly in my direction and holds a hand out in front of him. "Go on, tell her about the bet."

"Bet? What bet?" I ask.

"I don't know what he's talking about." Mason mutters.

"Oh don't give me that bullshit! You know exactly what I'm talking about dick." Damon laughs humourlessly and pushes Mason again which causes him to quickly turn around and glare angrily at Damon.

"Push me one more time and I swear-"

"What?" Damon scolds and squares up to him. "What will you do? Kick my ass? Aren't you going to _bet _on it?"

"What bet?" I ask again and pull at my hair in frustration. "I don't understand what is happening right now!"

"Tell her Mason." Damon demands but Mason doesn't open his mouth at all.

"Mason?" I ask calmly and his eyes look up to meet mine before looking down at the floor again.

"Fine. I'll tell her." Damon says and pushes past Mason so that he is stood directly in front of me. "Mason made a bet that he could get you to have sex with him."

I begin to laugh at Damon's ridiculousness before noticing the sincere look on Damon's face, the apologetic look on Mason's face and the murderous look on Jeremy's. My laugh slows to a stop which eventually turns into a small frown before turning into a scowl.

"You asshole!" I yell and begin to run at Mason but Damon wraps his arms around my waist and holds me in place with little effort.

"Elena stop." He whispers in my ear lightly. "He's not even worth it."

"Elena, I'm so-" Mason begins to apologise but I hold my hand up to stop him.

"Save it." I snap. "I'm done with you Mason."

Damon slowly removes his hands from around my waist and I storm towards the front door with Damon following me. I turn to Jeremy who hasn't moved from the same spot during this whole time and still has his hands scrunched into fists.

"Jeremy?" I call out and his head snaps towards me, his eyes softening instantly. "Come on. I don't want to be around this dick any longer."

He nods his head and begins to walk towards me.

"Elena, I didn't mean to upset you-" Mason begins but is yet again cut off – this time by Jeremy's fist to his face.

"Jeremy!" I shriek when I watch Mason fall to the ground in pain and Damon hurl over in laughter before dragging Jeremy away.

"I'm sorry Elena. I had to." Jeremy tries to reason with me but I just shake my head with an amused smile on my face and leave Mason squirming on his overly priced wooden floors.

I climb into Damon's car with Jeremy sitting in the back and Damon in the driver's seat.

"I can't believe that asshole." I mutter under my breath and lean back into the chair. "How did you guys find out anyway?"

"We heard two guys talking about some bet once you left the grill. After a small threatening, they blabbed." Damon explains with a shrug and I sigh for what must be the 20th time.

"Thanks for recusing me." I attempt to lighten the mood and Jeremy squeezes my shoulder reassuringly whilst Damon smirks.

"Well I couldn't have you skipping school to avoid him and leaving me all on my lonesome in chemistry now, could I?" Damon teases and I laugh lightly.

"Oh please, you were only worried because then you'd actually have to do the work."

"Duh." Damon replies with a roll of his eyes and I punch him in the stomach. "Hey! Don't ruin perfection with those tiny fists of yours." He pouts and runs his hands over his body sexily which causes Jeremy to groan loudly and slump back into his seat. Damon winks at me and starts the engine to his car.

"Just take me home." I sigh and lean back into my seat again, closing my eyes and resting my head against the headrest.

"Gladly." I hear Damon reply and at that word, my lips turn up into a smile on their own accord.

**A/N: So Elena knows about the bet, YEY!**

**Damon and Jeremy saved her, YEY!**

**Jeremy punched Mason, DOUBLE YEY!**

**Deremy and Delena – is there anything better than that? No is the answer I think you're looking for.**

**I may be a little slower with the updates to this story as I have exams nearly every day for the next two weeks, but after that, I promise to go ape shit with these updates!**

**Let me know what you think. :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Can I just thank every single person who has reviewed this story! Over 200 reviews in under 10 chapters - that's seriously amazing! When I started to write this story, I didn't think that it would be very popular, but clearly people like it.**

**I decided to update a small chapter today even though I really should be studying for the exam that I have in just two days' time…. Whoops. **

**Read on and review -**

DPOV

"Are you going to be okay?" I ask Elena when I drop her and Jeremy off home later that day.

"Yeah." She smiles. "Thanks Damon."

"You're welcome. Though you should be thanking Jeremy for that jaw aching punch he threw Mason's way." I laugh and relive the awesome moment of Jeremy socking Mason one. _This kid is seriously too cool. _

"No." She sighs. "Not just for helping me out with Mason, but for everything. I really appreciate how nice you're being." She thanks me with her serious face and my eyes widen a little in surprise before I manage to compose myself.

"Who'd have thought it, huh? Damon Salvatore is actually nice." She teases and I roll my eyes at her comment.

"Just don't tell anyone. I have a reputation to up hold." I whisper in her ear and she nods her head vigorously.

"You're secrets safe with me." She winks with a wide smile on her face. She thanks me once more before following Jeremy inside her house and sending me a small wave before closing the front door. I stare at the closed door for a few moments before shaking the thoughts I'm having from my head and walking back to my car, heading home.

As I arrive home, I see my mom's car parked in the driveway along with a car that I don't recognise. I furrow my eyebrows together in confusion before parking my car in the usual spot outside the garage and killing the engine.

"Mom?" I yell into the large house that is usually empty.

"In here honey!" I hear my mom yell back from the kitchen in her sweet voice.

I stroll towards the kitchen and smile when I see my mom sat on top of the kitchen counter with a wide grin on her face. However, my smile disappears when my eyes settle on the man cooking on the kitchen stove and clearly flirting with my mom.

"What the hell is this?" I demand, my voice sounding slightly higher in pitch than it usually is.

The unknown man spins around from the stove and meets my eyes with a friendly smile.

"Hey, you must be Damon." He says in a warm voice, stepping forward and holding his hand out for me to shake. "I'm Ric."

I move my gaze from his eyes to his out stretched hand before looking towards my mom.

"What's going on?" I ask her and see 'Ric' slowly place his hand down by his side again awkwardly when I reject his handshake.

"Damon…" My mom begins hesitantly and slides off the kitchen counter before walking over towards me and Ric. "This is Alaric Saltzman."

"Okay?" I shrug. "and?"

"Well, you see, Ric and I have actually known each other for a little while now." She says slowly and wraps an arm around Ric's waist while one of his arms wrap around her shoulders so that he's pulling her close to his body. She beams up at Ric while he looks down at her and smiles widely. "We're officially dating." She says with a playful giggle.

My eyes widen and my mouth drops open at my mother's words.

"The fuck?" I mumble but my mom snaps her head in my direction and sends me a warning glare.

"Language Damon!"

"Who gives a shit about my language? You have a_ boyfriend_?" I ask alarmed. "_This_ guy… and you? …Together?"

"Yes. We met at the hospital a few months ago and we decided to make our relationship official. I thought that it would be a good idea for you two to finally meet." She explains.

"What? What about Kal? I thought you didn't want to be in a relationship again after him?"

"That was before I met Ric." She replies and kisses his cheek affectionately which makes me want to throw up.

"How about I finish dinner up and you and Ric get to know each other in the living room?" My mom suggests and I immediately shake my head.

"No thanks."

"Damon." My mom says my name in a warning tone. "Be nice."

She squeezes my arm before sending Ric a warm smile and goes to continue staring the contents of a pan on the kitchen stove. I send Ric a death glare before sighing loudly and heading towards the living room with Ric hot on my tail.

"So Damon, are you into sports?" Ric asks casually with a grin on his face and sits down opposite to the couch that I'm currently on.

"Yep." I say disinterested, popping the P annoyingly and pulling my phone out of my jacket so that I can text Klaus.

"Look, I know that this might be a little strange for you Damon, but I really like your mom." Ric says with a sigh when he catches on that I don't really want to 'get to know each other', as my mom put it.

"Sure you do." I say with an eye roll.

"_I do."_ He stresses. "I wouldn't be here otherwise."

"So, what? What do you want me to say? 'I'm completely fine with another douchebag dating my mom, let's be best friends?'" I say sarcastically.

"No, of course not." He says with a head shake and then lets out a small laugh. "Your mom warned me about how… difficult you can be."

"Difficult? That's the word she used to describe me?" I scoff.

"No. The words your mom used were 'cocky little bastard', but I figured that difficult seemed more polite for our first meeting." He laughs and I feel the corners of my mouth fighting to turn up into a smile.

"Look man, for some reason my mom obviously likes you or else she wouldn't want to introduce you to me. Just don't hurt her and I won't have to kill you." I say in a casual tone.

"That's a joke, right?" He laughs awkwardly and I shrug my shoulders.

"Let's hope we don't find out."

XXX

Okay, so maybe I was wrong about Ric. He's actually pretty cool. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to go skipping hand in hand down the street with the guy and I'm still not totally happy about him dating my mom, but I guess that I could at least tolerate seeing him around the house once in a while…. Maybe.

We ate dinner together which made a nice change to my usual routine of eating left over pizza on my own. I learnt that Ric is a paediatric doctor at Mystic Falls general and met my mom 5 months ago when he moved to Mystic Falls from San Francisco. He also told me that he likes to play video games when he's not working which made my dislike for him disappear just a little bit more.

"So, what have you been up to lately?" My mom asks me later that night after we finished eating dinner and all three of us are sprawled out in the living room, some dumb ass movie playing on the TV.

"Nothing." I shrug. "Just hanging out with Klaus. Oh, and Jeremy."

"Jeremy? Who's that?"

"Jeremy Gilbert, Elena's brother."

"Elena? Is that your girlfriend?" Ric asks with a teasing tone.

"No." I laugh. "She's not my girlfriend. Just a friend - Kinda."

"Just a friend? Is she hot?" He asks and I nod.

"Yeah."

"There's no such thing as being 'just friends' with a girl who's hot." Ric informs me but I shake my head.

"No, trust me. There is with Elena."

"Wait, Gilbert? I'm sure I know that name from somewhere." My mom mumbles to herself but I over hear her.

"You've probably just seen them around town before. Mystic Falls isn't exactly a big place you know mom."

"No, that's not it." She mumbles. "Did Elena need to go to the hospital lately?"

"No." I say with furrowed eyebrows. "I don't think so."

"Never mind." My mom laughs lightly. "I must just be imaging things."

"Looks like someone has been hitting the wine too hard." I tease and my mom scoffs while Alaric laughs. She tries to scowl at me but ends up grinning and then pokes me in my ribs.

"How did I raise you to be so cheeky?"

"Must just be in the genes." Alaric inputs.

"Yeah, I learnt from the best you know." I agree and wink to my mom.

The three of us continue to watch the rest of the old 80's movie that is currently playing and fall into comfortable silence. When the movie ends, I kiss my mom's cheek and tell her goodnight before fist bumping Ric and heading upstairs to my bedroom. I shower and change into a pair of grey sweatpants before crawling under the covers on my bed and sleeping the action filled day away.

**A/N: Short, I know – Sorry! Just a little chappie to keep people interested. **

**I decided to bring Ric into the story as Damon's mom's new boyfriend. Yey or nay?**

**Also, who do you think Damon's mom is thinking about when she said that she recognised the name Gilbert? Is shit about to hit the fan?**

**My last exam is on Friday, so after that I should be updating all on my stories frequently again and hopefully with longer chapters, YEY! **

**Thanks for reading, let me know what you think :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: My exams are finally over! YAY! **

**I plan to update this story more frequently from now on. **

**Also, thank you so much for all of the reviews/favourites/follows. I know I say this in every A/N, but I really do appreciate every single one of them. They never fail to make me smile on a rainy day.**

**Here's the next chapter…**

EPOV

"Damon, stop it!" I whisper-yell for the fourth time in the past hour. Damon ignores me and kicks my foot under the table once again while trying to maintain a straight face.

"Damon, I'm trying to concentrate." I sigh quietly and point to the video currently being shown at the front of our chemistry classroom.

"So am I." He counters with a smirk on his face. "You keep kicking me."

I grind my teeth together and ignore his comment, concentrating back on the video. Damon Salvatore always knows how to get a rise out of me and today he must be feeling extra playful – well so am I.

I wait until he nudges my foot under the table again and then quietly cry out in pain, leaning down under the desk to clutch my foot. Damon's instantly at my side and leaning down slightly to be able to whisper to me.

"Shit, I didn't mean to hurt you. Are you okay?" He asks rapidly, his words coming out from his mouth just as fast as Caroline's do.

"No." I say through fake gritted teeth and put my acting skills to the test. "Why would you do that?"

"I didn't mean to." He apologise quickly. "I was just dicking around. I swear that I wouldn't hurt you on purpose."

"Well you did." I argue and turn my head slightly so that Damon isn't able to see the smile threatening to spread across my face. Who knew that Damon would be worried about me?

"Fuck. I'm sorry Elena." He murmurs and runs a hand through his hair.

"Will you stop kicking me now?"

"Yes! Of course I will."

"Good!" I beam and let go of my foot, leaning backwards so that I have correct posture and picking up my pen again.

"Wha… You… you're not really hurt?" Damon stammers and looks down at my foot before back at me again. I don't say anything except give him a look that consists of a wide smile and raised eyebrows.

"You bitch!" He laughs. "I really thought that I'd hurt you."

"And have you learnt your lesson?" I ask smugly and cross my arms over my chest.

"Elena, are you lecturing me?"

"I don't know. Do you need to be lectured?"

"I'll get you back for that." Damon says and completely ignores my question.

"I'll be looking forward to it." I reply and then turn away from quickly. _Am I flirting with Damon? _No, of course not. Don't be stupid Elena.

The rest of the class continues – without any more under table kicks, may I add – and with 10 minutes to go, Mrs Walters gives out a science project. Between partners. To do at home. In our free time.

In other words, Damon and I will have to spend the next week at each other's houses after school to be able to complete this project. I'm sure you can imagine how ecstatic I am.

"So, your place or mine?" Damon whispers sultry in my ear as soon as the bell rings, signalling the end of chemistry.

"Well since you already know where my place is, mine." I reply and watch as he nods his head before collecting his chemistry book that he hasn't even bothered to open since the start of the year and pushes away from our shared desk.

"I'll be looking forward to it." He winks and repeats my words from earlier. I curse myself when I feel my cheeks heating up a little and use my hair to curtain my face until he disappears out of the classroom.

What the hell have I got myself into?

XXX

"Elena, I have no fucking clue what the hell you're talking about." Damon says to me as I continue to explain about atoms later that evening. Damon came over to my house an hour ago and we decided to do a project on atoms and isotopes – only Damon doesn't know anything about them.

"Well you would if you actually listened to me instead of changing the subject every five minutes." I sigh and close the book that I have open in front of me explaining the structure of atoms and slide it across the dining room table.

"Where's Jeremy?" He asks.

"See? You have just proven my point."

Damon rolls his eyes and picks up the pen in front of me, clicking it off and on a few times before placing it back down again.

"What's wrong with you?" I ask and watch when he turns his head to look at me. "You're acting… weird."

"Gee, thanks." He says and rolls his eyes – _again._

"Seriously, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." He mumbles and places his elbow on my dining table, his head resting in the palm of that hand.

"Damon, you can talk to me." I tell him sympathetically and place a hand on his arm in a gesture of comfort. His eyes widen a little with surprise so I immediately remove my hand and cough awkwardly.

"It's nothing, Elena. I'm just being stupid." He tells me and runs a hand through his hair. I raise my eyebrows at him as if to say that I'm not going to drop it and he sighs loudly.

"It's my brother." He begins and my jaw hits the floor.

"You're brother?" I repeat. "I didn't even know that you had a brother."

"I don't, not anymore." He says sadly.

"Why not?" I ask slowly, although I'm almost certain I can figure out the answer.

"He died. He was in a car accident 6 years ago with my mom's ex-boyfriend." He explains and then looks down at the table. "It's the anniversary of his death today."

I stare at the boy in front of me with sad eyes and find that I don't recognise him to be the mean douchebag he was at the start of senior year. He's had a hard life, just like me. I couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to lose Jeremy, so I have noideawhat Damon must have gone through losing _his _brother.

"I'm sorry." I mumble and mentally kick myself because I know that me apologising isn't going to change anything. Damon doesn't say anything except shrug his shoulders and I desperately want to help him. So I do the one thing I never in a million years thought I would.

I lean forward and wrap my arms around his back tightly, leaning my head on his shoulder. I feel Damon tense underneath me and I hold my breath realising that I shouldn't have hugged him. Just as I'm about to remove myself from the hug, Damon slowly slides his arms around me and holds me against him equally as tightly. I let out the breath I was holding and smile a small smile to myself.

We stay wrapped up in a friendly hug for a few moments before I feel Damon start to pull away from me. I remove my arms from around him and lift my head from his shoulder. He avoids making eye contact with me and clears his throat awkwardly before speaking.

"We should get back to this." He says, still without looking at me and pointing back to the start of our project.

I narrow my eyes at him because I can feel his walls being pushed back up and stand up from my seat at the dining table. I walk over to the cabinet in the kitchen where my so-called-mother keeps her collection of alcohol and grab the first bottle I see.

"What are you doing?" Damon asks and looks at me for the first time since our hug.

"Having fun." I shrug and pull out two cups before pouring the alcohol inside them. "I think we could both use it."

"What about our project?"

"I guess we'll just have to work extra hard tomorrow night." I smirk and watch as a smile slowly spread across Damon's face.

XXX

"_Now and then when I see her face, it takes me away to that special place!"_ Damon and I sing at the top of our voices and dance around my living room, each with a cup full of whiskey in our hands.

"_Woah, sweet child o' mine!"_

We both collapse into a fit of giggles and fall onto my couch holding our stomachs.

"Thank you." Damon says to me after we've finished our laughing fit.

"What for?"

"For this. You officially got my mind away from Stefan." He explains and I grin widely.

"You're welcome."

"You know…" Damon begins and leans forward to place his cup on the coffee table before leaning back again. "I never knew that you were this fun, Gilbert."

"Okay, one, don't call me Gilbert." I say pointing a finger in his chest, still with a huge smile on my face. "And two, I'm not usually. I guess you just bring the crazy Elena out. Besides, I never knew that you were actually a decent human being."

"I guess you bring the decent Damon out." He smirks, copying my words and making me laugh.

"You know, tomorrow if Mrs Walters asked us what we worked on tonight, we're kinda screwed." I giggle.

"We'll just have to tell her the truth." Damon shrugs and then places his cocky half-smile across his face. "You wanted to get me drunk so that you could seduce me."

"Yes, that's exactly the reason Damon." I deadpan. "You caught me."

"Oh come on Elena. Admit it." He chuckles. "You think I'm hot."

"No." I lie.

"Yes you do." He insists and pokes me in my rib lightly. "You're lying."

"Fine." I huff. "You're not the most unattractive guy in the world."

"Thank you." He beams smugly.

"Oh don't act so smug." I scold. "The size of your ego is making it hard for me to breath."

Damon laughs and I find myself laughing too. The laughter dies down and I find him staring at me. I stare back and we don't make any attempt to look away. He shows me a small smile which I return and leans forward ever so slowly. Just as I begin to think that he's going to kiss my lips, he twists his head slightly so that his lips land on my cheek.

He keeps his warm, soft lips on my right cheek for a few moments before leaning backwards with slightly darker eyes. He clears his throat and stands up from the couch, sending me a smile that looks slightly forced.

"It's late. I better head home." He says and walks through to the dining room to grab his leather jacket.

I stand up from the couch too and place my hands in my pockets as I wait for Damon to come back.

He tells me that he'll see me tomorrow and rushes out of my house as if it's magically caught fire. I stare at the spot Damon was just standing with furrowed eyebrows and slightly parted lips.

What the hell just happened?

And why did I want Damon to kiss me? _Really_ kiss me.

I put the feeling down to the alcohol I've drank and move through to the dining room to clean up the mess Damon and I made while dancing.

**A/N: So this chapter was completely Delena to make up for the lack of their scenes last chapter. I planned to add some Deremy scenes in here too, but had trouble fitting Jeremy in.**

**I hope you liked it. **

**Let me know…**


	12. Chapter 12

DPOV

The overly bright sun shining through my windows hurt my eyes when I woke that morning. I rolled over in my bed with a groan so that my head was buried in the pillows and protected me from the harsh morning light. I close my eyes to try and get a few more minutes of sleep before school when an image suddenly pops behind my closed eyelids.

_Elena. _

I swear, this girl is doing things to me that I don't feel comfortable with.

Yesterday was the anniversary of my brother's death and I usually spend the day getting into trouble and doing everything I possibly can to get my mind off my dead baby brother. But instead, I spent the day with Elena and I found that I hardly thought of him at all. She made me have fun and instead of feeling sorry for myself like I usually do, I found myself laughing.

Before I left her house, I kissed her cheek as a thank you for helping me through the day, but the feel of her silky smooth skin underneath my lips made me feel all… funny inside. When I pulled away, I found that I actually wanted to kiss her. _Really_ kiss her.

Every day, I find myself growing more attached to her – and that scares me. So yesterday, when an unfamiliar feeling popped up, I did the one thing that I'm good at. I ran. I ran away from her as fast as I could without seeming too suspicious.

I started the school year out almost dreading going to chemistry because I had to spend an entire hour listening to _Miss Perfect_ bitch about 'how bad I am'. But she's not perfect – and that's what I like about her. I've begun to realise how wrong I was about her. She's not snobby or stuck-up like I originally thought. In reality she's funny and smart. Strong and interesting. She's witty and not to mention sexy as hell. But what I like most about her is how selfless she is. She actually cares about people – maybe a little too much.

Yesterday, I told her about my brother. I have no idea _why _I told her, but I did. When she hugged me, I was so shocked that I couldn't bring myself to move for a moment. I just sat there awkwardly while she squeezed me into a tight hug. And it felt… nice.

Oh fuck, what's happening to me? I actually _care _about her. I've never cared about anyone before.

But Elena… she's different.

XXX

"63! 54! Hut, hut, hut!" Klaus yells and begins to run with the football tightly secured in his hands. Tyler goes to tackle Klaus with full force, but just before he does, Klaus manages to throw the ball to me and I sprint down the field, roughly throwing the football onto the ground once I reach my target.

"Oh, look at that." I tease to Tyler and Matt. "We win - _Again_. Aren't you supposed to be on the school team, Matthew?"

"Shut up, dick." Matt mumbles and picks up the ball resting at my feet. Klaus dusts the dirt off his clothes put there by Tyler's tackle and lets out a laugh.

"You two _suck_." He points out and I nod my head in agreement.

"Hot girls, 12 o clock." Tyler informs us with a head nod in the direction of the small group of girls making their way to the bleachers through the cafeteria doors.

"Hey, isn't that the girl you've been hanging with?" Matt asks and points to a brown haired girl with her back to us. "What's her name again? Ellen?"

"Elena." I correct immediately and then clear my throat when the guys send me strange looks. I pull the football out of Matt's hands and throw it up and down to myself a few times.

"Well, aren't you going to go over and say hi?" Tyler asks me and I shrug my shoulders. I've been trying to avoid her today due to my realisation that I actually care about her and the last thing I want to do is go over there.

"Well if you aren't, I sure am." Matt comments. "She is so hot."

My grip around the ball tightens a little bit and I shoot Matt a glare that he doesn't notice because he's too busy drooling over _my_ lab partner! I see the cafeteria doors open once more and Jeremy walks out in search for his sister.

"Jeremy!" I yell across the school football field. He spots me and I make a hand gesture to signal him over.

"Hey Damon." He greets quietly and shoves his hands into his jeans pockets nervously.

"What's up Jer. You up for a game of good ol' American football?" I ask him with a grin and wiggle the ball in my hands in front of him.

"I'm not very good at it." He replies and digs his foot into the ground a few times.

"Neither are Tyler and Matt." I tell him and point to the two idiots on my left. "Yet somehow, they let Matt on the school team."

"Shut up Damon." Matt hisses and storms off to the group of girls laughing over by the bleachers. Tyler mutters a quiet 'see you' and runs after Matt, leaving me, Klaus and Jeremy.

"What ever happened to bro's before hoes!" Klaus yells after them but doesn't receive a reply.

"So I guess it's just us three then." I mumble and throw the ball to Jeremy who catches it and then throws it to Klaus. The three of us have a system going and me and Klaus do most of the talking, though Jeremy does add a word in every so often. I've noticed that Jeremy isn't as talkative when anyone else is around - When it's just the two of us, he'll happily strike up a conversation.

I guess I'm just that awesome.

XXX

EPOV

"Elena?"

"Elena?"

"Elena!"

The yelling of my name effectively brings me out of watching my little brother throw a football to Damon and Klaus across the school football field.

"Huh?" I mumble and turn to find Rebekah and Caroline staring at me.

"We said, what do you think?" Caroline says.

"About what?"

"About Amie Jones in junior year?"

"Who's that?" I ask.

"Only the girl that we've been talking about for the past 5 minutes." Rebekah says with an amused grin. "Have you even been listening to us?"

"Not really." I reply honestly and see them both roll their eyes before they go back to talking about how much of a slut this 'Amie Jones' person is.

I go back to watching my brother acting like 'one of the boys' and can't hide the small smile on my face. Jeremy is becoming more and more open and daring every day and I think that it has something to do with him becoming friends with Damon.

Speaking of Damon, I'm pissed that he's been avoiding me all day. I think that it might have something to do with last night, but he can't avoid me forever. We have to work on our science project tonight.

"Hello ladies." I hear a low voice say and turn my head slightly to the right to spot Matt Donovan and Tyler Lockwood stood next to me.

"Urgh, I'll be back when he's gone." Caroline mutters, pointing in Tyler's direction and moving further down the bleachers. Caroline still hasn't gotten over Tyler's fuck-and-chuck arrangement with her and she made it her life's mission to avoid him.

"Can we help you?" I ask and cross my arms over my chest. Matt sits down next to me and Tyler sits down next to Rebekah who looks at me with raised eyebrows.

"How are you today, Rebekah?" Tyler asks and she rolls her eyes at him.

"Fine until you came over." She replies with a fake grin.

"Oh come on!" Tyler laughs. "You're seriously not mad at me about Caroline, are you?"

"Have you ever heard of girl code?"

"Yes."

"Then you know why I'm mad at you."

I hold in a laugh at Tyler's annoyed expression and face Matt only to find him staring at me.

"What?" I ask him. "Why are you staring at me?"

"You're just so hot that it's hard not to." He shrugs and I roll my eyes.

"Woah, I bet that line gets you all the ladies, huh?" I mumble sarcastically.

I turn away from Matt and look at the football field again to find Damon watching me. As soon as we make eye contact, he quickly looks away and catches the football that Klaus throws to him.

"Do you two want to do something after school with us?" Matt asks both me and Rebekah and motions to Tyler and himself.

"No thanks." We both reply at the same time. Rebekah stands up to walk over to Caroline and I stand up to walk over to the three boys playing football. As I approach closer to them, Klaus nods his head in my direction which makes Damon turn around and Jeremy hold the ball mid-throw.

"You've been avoiding me." I tell him and watch as his eyes widen a little and he rubs the back of his head nervously.

"Have I?"

"Yes."

"I just remembered." Klaus interrupts. "I have to … go do … that thing. Come on Jeremy."

Klaus and Jeremy stroll away quickly leaving Damon and I on our own. I cross my arms over my chest and raise an eyebrow at him as I wait for his explanation.

"Have you done something new with your hair?" Damon asks and fiddles with the ends of my hair.

"No. And stop trying to change the subject, Damon. Why have you been avoiding me? Have I done something wrong?"

"No." He sighs. "I'm just having a bad day."

"So you're not mad at me?"

"No."

"And you're still coming over tonight to do our science project?"

"Yes."

"Okay." I smile and breathe a sigh of relief. "See you tonight."

"Yep." Damon nods and smiles back before I head back over to my friends and Damon to his.

XXX

"Okay, so I was thinking that we could talk about atoms in the human body and positive and negative ions." I tell Damon and glance around the dining table for my chemistry book before I remember that I left it upstairs.

"Actually, my book is upstairs in my room." I stand away from the table and motion for Damon to follow me. "Come on."

"No Elena, I will not go to your bedroom with you." Damon says loud enough so that Jeremy is able to hear him from his position in the living room. I roll my eyes and grab his hand so that I can pull him up and lead him upstairs.

"Ah, just like I remember." Damon teases as he walks around my room picking items up every now and then.

"Stop messing around." I tell him as I pull a picture of Rebekah and I out of his hands. He shrugs before jumping on my bed and picking up my teddy bear up, placing it in his lap.

I smile a little at how adorable he looks and try to get over my girl moment of having a hot guy on my bed. I walk over to my desk and pull my chemistry book off before joining Damon on my bed.

"You're seriously not going to read that, are you?" Damon asks and motions to my book.

"Yes." I say slowly. "What else would we do?"

"Oh, I don't know." He sighs with a small grin on his face. "What could we do? I mean it's just the two of us. Alone. In your bedroom. With a bed."

I catch onto his meaning and widen my eyes before hitting him in the arm.

"We're definitely not doing _that."_

"I know." He smirks. "Relax, I'm just kidding."

"You're such a dick." I laugh and he narrows his eyes at me.

"Take that back."

"No." I refuse with a playful smile on my face and cross my arms over my chest stubbornly.

"Elena." He says my name in a warning tone. "Take that back."

"_Damon."_ I mimic in the same tone he used. "No."

"Say it again. I dare you." He insists.

"Okay. I, Elena Gilbert, think that you, Damon Salvatore, are such a dic-"

I'm cut off by a pillow being thrown at my face and a smug looking Damon trying not to laugh at my bewildered expression.

"Seriously?" I shriek. "You threw a pillow at me?"

"You shouldn't have called me a dick, Gilbert." He shrugs and calls me by my last name because he knows that it pisses me off.

"Fine." I exclaim. "Game on, _Salvatore."_

I pick up the pillow that Damon just threw at me and launch it in his direction. I burst out laughing when I hit my target straight in the face, but my laughter gets cut short when a pillow comes flying back at me. We both narrow our eyes at each other, small smiles playing on our lips and immediately both jump to the collection of pillows at the top of my bed.

Fluffy hits are exchange left, right and centre between Damon and I, each trying our hardest to mask our laughter. Damon goes to throw a pillow at me and I lean backwards to try and avoid being hit. Unfortunately for me, I lean too far back and begin to fall off the side of my bed. Damon quickly shoots his hand out for me when he sees that I'm about to fall and I grab on, which makes me pull Damon down too and he lands on top of me.

"Shit, are you okay?" Damon asks as he pushes himself off me slightly so that he's balancing above me on his forearms.

"Yes." I laugh which makes Damon laugh too. "Sorry that I pulled you down."

"S'okay." He chuckles. "Sorry that I made you fall."

We both look at each other, each with amused grins on our faces and I stare into Damon's eyes.

Were they always that blue? Surely I would have noticed how beautiful they are before?

I find Damon staring right back at me, the grin completely disappeared from his face and he glances down to my lips. I see his tongue sweep along his bottom lip to wet it and he looks back up to my eyes again.

We keep eye contact for a few moments before Damon moves his head down to mine ever so slowly. I see his eyes flutter close just before he reaches my face and I close mine too when I feel his lips press against mine.

He places a light soft graze on my lips which I return before pulling away and looking into my eyes again.

"Elena." He whispers my name and moves a piece of hair from my face, gently tucking it behind my ear.

I smile up at him and nod my head gently giving him the okay.

Suddenly, as if all restraint has flew out the window, Damon leans back down again and presses his lips to mine once more, this time more passionately. His lips glide over mine in a mixture of soft and hard kisses and it feels right. I never understood why every time I kissed Mason it felt so odd and it was because I was never into it. It was wrong. But kissing Damon, it feels natural. Tiny little fireworks explode behind my eyelids and Damon must feel them too because his hand moves up my body and threads through my hair.

His tongue glides across my bottom lip and he pulls it gently into his mouth, sucking lightly and it _so damn good_. I cup his face with my hands, rubbing one of my thumbs over his cheeks before moving them further up and tangling them in his dark hair. I nibble on his lip before soothing it with my tongue. Damon pulls my hair lightly so that my head is angled more and his tongue meets mine, both battling for dominance.

When the need for air becomes necessary, we both break away from the kiss and open our eyes, brown meeting blue as we gasp for air.

"Wow." I breathe out and watch as Damon chuckles lightly.

"Yeah. Wow." He agrees.

He slides off me, standing up and holding a hand out for me which I happily take. When he pulls me up, I run a hand through my hair and flatten out my clothes before looking back at Damon who has a smug smirk on his face.

"What?" I ask him, also smiling slightly.

"Nothing." He shrugs. "I just never in a million years thought that I'd kiss Elena Gilbert."

"I'd never in a million years that thought I'd have Damon Salvatore in my house, never mind kiss him." I giggle.

"I guess some things change." He says quietly, gazing into my eyes with a look that becomes too much for me and makes me look away from him.

"I guess they do." I nod and sit back on my bed again, placing my chemistry book back in my lap and watching as Damon sits down next to me once more.

**A/N: OMG! They freaking kissed! **

**I hope that you guys don't think that it's too early for a Delena kiss. I had a couple of reviews saying that they wished Damon and Elena kissed in the last chapter and, as I aim to please, I thought I'd make it happen this chapter. **

**Did you notice that small Deremy moment in there too? I did that just for you. Yes, you. **

**I feel kinda bad making Matt a little bit of a douchebag in this chapter. He's probably one of my favourite characters, after Damon of course. **

**And Elena.**

**And Elijah. **

**And Klaus.**

**And Caroline. **

**And Rebekah…. Then Matt.**

**Oh, wait, I forget Alaric. **

**Anyway, thanks for reading. I loved the reviews you guys gave me last chapter. You're all so freaking AWESOME!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Sorry for the late update! I could tell you every excuse under the sun as to why it's late but the truth is, I just couldn't find the energy to write this chapter. **

**But!... I finally finished it and here it is. I hope you'll forgive me! :D **

EPOV

"So which one do you think? The red or the blue?"

"Oh the blue one definitely."

"Really? I kinda like the red one more."

"Elena?"

"What?" I ask quickly and look up from staring at my nails.

"Which one do you prefer? The red dress or blue dress?" Caroline asks with a sigh and holds up two dresses in front of me.

"…I don't know. Whichever you want to wear." I say with a slight shrug. Caroline was going out with her dad tonight who she hasn't seen in over a year due to him leaving her mother for a man. She's currently more worried about what she looks like than what she's going to say to him.

"What's going on with you? You seem really distracted." Rebekah comments and sits down on the end of Caroline's bed while Caroline goes to the bathroom to get changed.

"Nothing." I mumble.

"Want to try that again?" She asks me with raised eyebrows and I sigh loudly.

"I might have… done something stupid."

"Why? What did you do?"

"I kissed Damon last night." I blurt out quickly.

"You _kissed_ Damon?"

"Well, technically he kissed me. But I kissed him back."

"Why?"

"I don't know!" I huff and pull at the ends of my hair in frustration. "I mean… this is _Damon Salvatore_! I pretty much hated the guy since first day of freshman year. But these past two months that we've spent hanging out, he's not been… _that_ bad. Actually, he's been kinda…sweet."

"Then why is kissing him stupid?" She asks with furrowed eyebrows as if she's confused. Hell, _I'm _confused.

"Because, yeah he's been sweet towards me but he's still _Damon. _He's reckless and can be a jerk towards people if he wants to. He's hardly ever serious, everything's just one big joke to him. I mean, what if I start to develop feelings for him. He'd probably laugh in my face."

"Elena, it sounds like you already have feelings for him." Rebekah points out softly and I groan. "But you just said that Damon _kissed _you. If you have feelings for him, I don't think he'd laugh at you. He could feel the same way."

"Are you kidding me?" I laugh humourlessly. "Damon doesn't have feelings for anyone. I don't think he's ever even had a real girlfriend before."

"So?" Rebekah shrugs. "People change."

_I guess some things change. _

I remember Damon's words from last night after he kissed me and bite my lip nervously. _Do I have feelings for Damon? _I don't hate him anymore, that's for sure. I mean, we're even considered as friends now. But do I have feelings for him? I groan inwardly when I realise I already know the answer to that.

"I say you talk to him." Rebekah interrupts my thoughts.

"Yeah, right." I chuckle. "I'd rather not be made fun of for the rest of my high school life for being like nearly every other girl in our school and feeling something for Damon Salvatore. _And_ he's coming over later to do our stupid science project…"

"You're scared." Rebekah says with a knowing smirk.

"Excuse me?" I scoff.

"You're scared." She repeats. "You're scared of what other people will think. You're scared of what Damon will think if you tell him that you like him. Screw everyone else, Elena. Put yourself first for once."

"When did you become so wise?" I tease, making Rebekah laugh lightly.

"Not all blondes are dumb, you know?" She winks and I roll my eyes.

"Can someone come and help me!" Caroline yells from inside the bathroom. "I accidently put my head through the arm sleeve in my dress and now I'm stuck!"

"I beg to differ." I mumble to Rebekah making us both burst out laughing before rushing into the bathroom and helping Caroline out of her dress.

XXX

DPOV

"Damon, I'm heading to work. Do you need anything before I go?" My mom asks as she walks down the stairs in her doctor's uniform while tying her hair up into a ponytail.

"No." I mumble and continue flicking through the channels of the TV.

"What's wrong with you?" She asks. "You haven't moved from the couch in hours."

"Nothing."

"Don't lie to me. What's going on with you?"

"Nothing." I repeat.

"Oh, leave him alone." A new voice chuckles and I turn my head to find Ric strolling into the living room. "You know what teenage boys are like."

"Urgh, you're here." I groan when he sits down on the chair opposite me.

"Yep." He nods. "Good to see you too, buddy."

"Okay, well, I should be home tonight." My mom interrupts and places a kiss on Ric's lips.

"Hey, sensitive eyes over here!" I announce loudly making them break their kiss up.

"Oh please, like you haven't done much worse." Ric scoffs.

"I'd rather not talk about my son's sexcapades, thank you." My mom mutters and heads towards the front door. "Play nice you two!"

"Bye mom!"

I continue to flick through the TV channels before I find a sports game and leave it playing.

"Since when did you like baseball?" Ric asks and points to the baseball game currently showing.

"Since now." I shrug.

"Alright, what's _really _going on with you?" He asks and leans forward in his chair.

"Why does there have to be anything going on with me?"

"Because you seem… upset." He comments.

"I'm not _upset_." I defend. "Besides, whatever happened to 'you know what teenage boys are like?'

"I only said that to get your mother off your back. You know how persistent she can be."

"Yeah well, there's nothing wrong." I sigh.

"Fine, don't tell me." He suggests and holds his hands up in front of him before leaning back in the chair.

We sit in silence for a few moments and I notice Ric turn his head and gaze at me every few seconds before turning back to the television screen again. I sigh loudly and sit up from my position of lying down on the couch.

"It's Elena." I begin.

"Elena? Isn't she your chemistry partner?" He asks.

"Yep."

"Well what's the problem?"

"The problem is… I like her."

"Isn't that a good thing? I mean you can't go through life hating people." He acknowledges.

"No, dickbiscuit, I mean I _like _her." I explain slowly and watch Ric's eyes widen slightly before he nods.

"Oh. So I guess you could say that you two have good chemistry." He tries to joke but I just roll my eyes.

"Yeah yeah, we're chemistry partners. I get it, ha ha."

"No, but seriously, I still don't understand the problem with that?"

"Because it's Elena!" I say simply as if that will explain everything.

"…and?"

"And we're completely opposite. In fact, I don't think you could get two people more opposite than Elena and I!"

"Well you know what they say." Ric says with a shrug. "Opposites attract and all that."

"Well in this case I think it's just_ opposite_ – singular. Elena would never go for a guy like me." I sigh.

"Why not?" He asks. "I mean you're not the ugliest kid I've ever seen. And you're smart - _Ish_."

"Gee, thanks Ric. I feel so much better now." I say sarcastically and stand up from the couch.

"Oh come on, I was kidding!" Ric laughs. "Where are you going?"

"I'm meeting Elena soon." I inform him.

"Say hi to your girlfriend for me!" He teases.

"Shut up!"

XXX

EPOV

As soon as I arrived home from Caroline's, I had only 30 minutes until Damon planned to come over and continue our science project. I run up the stairs to my room, slamming the door shut in a hurry and speeding over to my closet, swinging the doors open. I glared at my clothes, pulling the occasional T-shirt from a hanger here and there before throwing it behind me on the floor. I finally come across a blue and white stripped blouse and pull out a pair of denim shorts to match. I go to change into them before stopping myself and running a hand down my face.

_What am I doing? _

I'm trying to look hot for Damon Salvatore. _Again._

With a sigh, I take my clothes and place them back into my closet. Get a fucking grip, Elena!

…I should at least run a brush through my hair.

I walk over to my vanity mirror and pick up the small brush resting on the side, combing out the knots and tangles in my long brown hair.

Before I know it, the doorbell rings and Jeremy informs me that Damon is here. I smooth my clothes out and check myself over in the mirror before leaving my room and heading down the staircase.

"Hi." I breathe out when I see him.

"Hi." He replies, equally as breathless.

I see Jeremy give us both a funny look as we stand there staring at each other before sitting back down on the couch again.

"You ready to get started?" I ask him, pointing in the direction of my chemistry things set up on the dining table.

"Yep." He nods popping the P. He follows me into the dining room and we sit in our usual seats; Damon in the centre seat and me on his right. I cross my arms across the table and Damon slides his jacket off. We both just stare at each other awkwardly with slight smiles on our faces.

"So… How are you?" I ask, aiming to break the awkward silence.

"Fine." He nods. "You?"

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Good."

"Yeah, good."

"Hmm."

"Yep."

"Okay."

We fall back into silence again and I tuck a piece of hair behind my ear nervously. What do I say? Do I ask about the kiss? Do I ask what it meant? Do I tell him that I might like him in _that _way?

Urgh, this is more awkward than the time in sophomore year when I called my math teacher 'mom' in front of the whole class.

"So, what are you doing this weekend?" I ask.

"I don't know yet." He shrugs. "You?"

"I don't know either."

"Well, maybe we could… hang out?" He asks rather nervously and I see his Adam's apple bob after he swallows hard.

"Yeah, sure." I smile. "I'd like that."

"Okay." He replies and lets out a deep breath before showing me a small smirk.

"Hi Damon." Jeremy greets as he walks into the dining room.

"Hey Jere." Damon replies.

"You guys want to watch a movie?" He asks as he pulls a bottle of water out from the fridge.

"Sorry man, we can't." Damon says gently and points to our science project. "We have to finish this."

"Oh. Well have fun." Jeremy smiles and exits the dining room again.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" I say once Jeremy has left the room.

"You just did." Damon smirks and I roll my eyes.

"Very funny." I deadpan. "Why are you so nice to Jeremy? Honestly."

"I've already told you Elena, I like Jeremy. He's cool. And I actually find him fun."

"Fun?

"Yeah, you know. That 3 letter word beginning with F. The thing that you need to do more of." He teases and nudges me with his elbow.

"Oh, please." I scoff. "I have fun."

"Oh yeah? When was the last time you had fun? _Honestly_."

"Last night." I shrug but avoid eye contact with him and instead play with my fingers.

"Oh." Is his response when he catches on that I'm talking about the kiss we shared. "So… you don't regret it, then?"

"Regret it?" I ask and move my gaze back up to his face. "Why would I regret it?"

"I don't know." He shrugs and this time he's the one that avoids eye contact. "I just thought that maybe you would regret that I kissed you."

"No!" I insist, maybe a little too quickly. "I'll admit that I was kinda shocked when it happened but I definitely don't regret it. Besides, I kissed you back, right?"

"Yeah." He smiles and looks me in the eyes again. We maintain eye contact for a while before I see Damon look down at my lips and I know what he's going to do before he does.

He slowly leans in and I do the same, but just before our lips get the chance to meet, the front door swings open and the sound of my mom's slurred voice fills the room.

"I'm home!" She sing-songs and I push away from the table to spot her stumbling into the kitchen and finding Damon and I sat at the dining table.

"Mom," I say nervously. "What are you doing home? Shouldn't you be at work?"

"I was at work." She slurs and then hiccups. "But they sent me… sent me home."

She immediately turns around and opens the kitchen cabinets, the sound of alcohol bottles clinging together before she pulls out a half-empty bottle of vodka and begins to pour it into a large glass. I quickly turn around to Damon and pull him up from the chair he's sat at.

"You need to go." I whisper and pick up his leather jacket from the chair.

"What? Why?" He asks as I push the jacket towards his chest, his arms moving around it to hold it in place.

"Just, please." I beg before Damon catches on to my biggest secret. "Please go."

"What's going on, Elena?" He asks me as I pull him through the house and towards the front door.

"Nothing." I reply quickly. "You just can't be here right now. I'll call you."

I reach for the door handle and open the door but Damon cups my face with one of his hands and forces me to look at him.

"Elena, what's wrong?" He asks softly and I bite my lip.

"Go." I plead and pull my face from his hand, stepping back from him. He sighs deeply and gives me one last look before nodding once and leaving my house.

"He's hot!" My mom announces drunkenly and I immediately turn from worried to angry in a matter of seconds. I slam the front door with a loud bang and spin on the spot so that I'm facing my mom.

"Really? We're back to this again?" I yell as Jeremy slowly leaves the living room and sneaks upstairs out of the way. "I thought you promised that you wouldn't drink again!"

"It was just one glass of wine, Elena." My mom tries to reason with me.

"You're lying! One glass of wine wouldn't make you this drunk. I mean look at you, you can barely stand up." I say and point to her swaying posture.

"I'm sorry."

"No, you're not. You're not sorry at all! If you were, you would give up drinking." I argue. "Mom, you _have_ to stop. I'm begging you! You might not remember the time that I had to call an ambulance because I found you passed out on the couch and turning blue in the face, but I do!"

"It's not fair to me, mom." I whisper. "It's not fair to Jeremy."

"I know." She sighs. "But it helps me."

"I can help you!" I stress. "Please, let me help you."

She reaches out and wipes one of the stray tears that escaped from my eyes from my cheek before smiling sadly.

"There's nothing you can do, Elena." She murmurs before turning around and heading back into the kitchen, taking a long gulp of vodka as she walks.

**A/N: Thanks for reading!**

**Drop me a review :) **


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Alright, I admit it. I personally don't like this chapter very much but I wanted to upload something for you guys as soon as possible and this was the best I could come up with. Please forgive the terribleness. :) **

**Oh, and to risk repeating myself once again, thank you so much for all the support you guys are giving me for this story! Ah-Ma-Gawd! *Girly squeal***

**Anyway… please read on. **

DPOV

What the fuck just happened?

Elena Gilbert kicked me out of her house! Why the hell was she acting so weird? And what was up with her mom? It's like she was acting… well, like she was acting wasted.

Shaking the million questions away and realising that I have nothing else to do with my afternoon, I decide to call Klaus and see if he wants to do something to stop myself from sulking over being kicked out of Elena's house. As I reach into my leather jacket pocket in search of my phone, my steps down the Gilbert driveway falter and then stop completely when I can't feel it. I check both pockets and then my jean pockets but come out empty handed. I knew I had it when I came over here earlier so it must still be in Elena's.

With a sigh, I turn on my heel and walk back up to the house, bringing my hand up to knock on the door but pausing when I hear Elena's muffled voice on the other side.

"_Really? We're back to this again?"_ I hear her yell clearly. "_I thought you promised that you wouldn't drink again!"_

Drink again?

"_It was just one glass of wine, Elena." _I hear her mom's voice reply a lot quieter than Elena's.

"_You're lying! One glass of wine wouldn't make you this drunk. I mean look at you, you can barely stand up."_

Now that I think about it, her mom did walk into the kitchen like the floor was wobbling. I guess that answers my question. She _is _wasted.

"_I'm sorry."_

"_No you're not. You're not sorry at all! If you were, you would give up drinking. Mom, you have to stop drinking, I'm begging you!"_

I frown towards the floor when I hear the desperation in Elena's voice.

"_You might not remember the time I had to call an ambulance because I found you passed out on the couch and turning blue in the face, but I do!"_

What? What the fuck is going on? Elena had to call an ambulance for her mom?

.

.

.

- And that's when it hits me.

The conversation with my mom a few days ago when she told me that she recognised the name Gilbert - It must have been Elena's mom. Anyone who visits Mystic Falls' general is bound to run into my mom sooner or later, she's almost _always_ there.

"_It's not fair to me, mom. It's not fair to Jeremy."_

"_I know, but it helps me." _Her mom replies.

"_I can help you! Please, let me help you."_

I hear Elena's voice break a little at the end of her plea and I clench my fists together, wanting nothing more than to burst in there and comfort her…. Woah, were the fuck did that come from?

"_There's nothing you can do, Elena."_

That's the last thing I hear before it all goes quiet and I don't hear any more voices.

Shit. What the hell do I do now?

XXX

EPOV

After my mom walked back into the kitchen and completely ignored how much it kills me to see her like this, I angrily wiped the tears flowing down my cheeks away and stormed upstairs, slamming my bedroom door shut.

I flopped onto my bed, suddenly feeling extremely tired. Whether it was due to the hard week of school or the exhaustion I feel every time I fight with my mom, I don't know.

I hear a light knock on my bedroom door and thinking it's my mom, I groan and yell a go away.

"It's me." I hear my brother say through the door, making me sit up on my bed and run my hand through my hair.

"Come in." I reply.

The door opens to reveal Jeremy, awkwardly rubbing the base of his foot into my bedroom carpet.

"Are you okay?" He asks after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah." I mumble even though we both know I'm lying. "You?"

"I'm fine." _Lie._

I nod my head anyway and pat the empty space on my bed, motioning for Jeremy to sit down next to me. He walks further into my bedroom and closes the door behind him, spinning around on his heel and sitting down exactly where I patted.

"How much did you hear?" I ask him, referring back to mine and my mom's argument and watch as he fidgets with his fingers.

"Enough." He replies.

"I'm so sorry, Jer."

"S'okay." He shrugs. "It's not your fault."

I grab his hand in mine and squeeze his fingers gently before letting go. He offers me a small smile before standing up from my bed and leaving my room. I grumble into the bathroom and splash some cold water on my face and go back downstairs quietly.

I see my mom sat on the couch laughing at something on the TV, a glass filled with some kind of alcohol permantley attached to her hand. I shake my head at the woman who is supposed to be my role model and walk through to the dining room.

I collect my chemistry books I put on the dining room table to help with mine and Damon's science project and pick them up, holding them in my arms and close to my chest. As I turn to leave the table, I spot something shiny on the floor underneath the table and bend down to find that the object is Damon's phone. It must have felt out of his jacket pocket when I roughly grabbed it from the back of the chair and pushed him out the door.

Oh my God! I pushed him out the door! How the hell am I going to explain that one?

Urgh, he's going to think that I'm a total freak now. _Way to go, Elena._

I place the phone in my pocket and quickly run upstairs, throwing my books on my desk and grabbing my car keys before climbing in my car and making my way to Rebekah's to find out where Damon lives.

XXX

DPOV

I decided to leave my phone behind for now. It's not very important considering what I've just heard. I eventually managed to put two and two together and came up with a theory.

- Elena saying her mom promised not to drink again.

- Elena calling an ambulance for her mom after she found her passed out.

- Her mom needing to go to the hospital and my mom remembering the name Gilbert.

My guess is on Elena's mom being an alcoholic. It's either that or everything is just a huge misunderstanding. I honestly hope for the latter.

When I get home, I find Alaric in my kitchen cooking dinner. He turns away from the oven and smiles when he sees me enter the room.

"Hey."

"Hi," I grumble and sit down at the kitchen table so that I'm facing the clock hanging on the wall and able to see the time clearly. "What time is my mom getting home?"

Alaric looks at the clock and calculates the time in his head. "She should be home soon. Why?"

"I just need to talk to her, that's all," I shrug.

"That sounds very mysterious," He jokes and I force a smile before frowning again.

How the hell did I not realise before? The bottles of alcohol stocked up in Elena's kitchen pretty much screams alcoholic. I didn't think anything of it at first, but now it just confirms my theory even more.

I continue to sit at the table and wait for my mom, looking at the clock every 15 seconds to check the time.

After nearly 20 minutes, I hear the front door slam shut and my mom yell into the house that she's home. Time to put my detective skills to work - Detective Damon. Huh, has a ring to it.

As soon as she enters the kitchen, I practically pounce on her with questions.

"Hey mom, do you remember that time when you said you recognised the name Gilbert?"

"Hello to you." She replies sarcastically.

"Hi." I say with an eye roll. "Do you?"

"Yes." She nods as she places her bag down on the kitchen table. "Why?" She asks and I ignore her question.

"Do you remember her first name being…Oh fuck, what's Elena's mom's name again?" I mumble quietly.

"Watch your language!" My mom scolds but yet again, I ignore her.

"Amanda, I think. Amanda Gilbert?"

"Amanda Gilbert?" She repeats and then shakes her head. "No, sorry. I don't remember anyone by that name."

I sigh loudly and run a hand through my hair. Damn. I really thought that I was onto something.

"Oh, wait!" My mom says suddenly and holds a finger up in the air. "I've treated a _Miranda _Gilbert before."

"Miranda! That's it!" I laugh and then turn serious again. "What was wrong with her?"

"Sorry Damon, you know I can't tell you that." She sighs. "It's doctor-patient con-"

"Confidentiality, yeah I know." I finish for her. "But this is really important."

"Why?" She asks with narrowed eyes. "What's going on?"

"Mom. Just…_please_? You can trust me."

She sighs loudly and runs a hand through her hair before speaking. "She was being treated for alcohol poisoning."

Bingo.

XXX

EPOV

_This _is Damon's house? Are you freaking kidding me! We've been completing our science project in my house when we could have been _here_? This place is like a castle.

I switch my engine off after I park in the long driveway and exit my car, the gravel on the floor crushing under my feet with every step. The front door of Damon's house is around twice the height of me and the lion-head knocker hanging down the door looks like it had taken months to carve.

I knock lightly twice and only have to wait a few short moments before the door opens and Damon appears looking rather confused.

"Elena," He greets in a surprised tone. "Not that I mind or anything, but how did you know where I lived?"

"Rebekah." I explain shyly.

"Damn. That girl is like Google maps." He mumbles and as I go to ask him what he's talking about, he interrupts me. "So, what brings you to my humble abode?"

"This," I say as I pull his phone out of my jeans pocket and hand it to him. "You left it at my house earlier. It must have fell from your pocket."

"I know." He mumbles and avoids my eyes as if he's nervous. "Thanks."

"Right." I say slowly and squint my eyes at his weird behaviour. "Well, that's all. I'm going to go now."

"Wait!" He says quickly as I go to turn around. "Do you want to come inside? I kinda need to talk to you."

"Erm, sure. Okay."

Damon opens the door wider as I step inside before closing it behind me. I look at the room I guess to be the living room and my eyes bulge out of my head.

"Wow. _This _is your living room?"

"Living room, parlour, Sotheby's auction. It's a little kitschy for my taste." He jokes as he sits down.

"What do you want to talk about?" I ask as I awkwardly sit across from him.

"I um, I don't really know how to tell you this," He begins and rubs the back of his head awkwardly. "Alright, I'm just going to say it. Earlier, when I realised that my phone was missing, I planned to go back and ask you for it but as soon as I got to your front door, I heard yelling coming from inside."

_Oh no. _

Please don't let this conversation be what I think it's going to be about.

"So…I kinda…listened. I know! I shouldn't have!" He says quickly, holding his hands out in front of him. "But I just heard how upset you sounded and I couldn't bring myself to walk away and pretend I didn't hear what I did."

My eyes widen at his words and my throat turns dry.

"What exactly did you hear?" I ask quietly, even though I'm not too sure I really want to know the answer.

Damon's eyes soften at my expression and he sighs before moving from his position on the couch opposite me to sit next to me.

"I know," Is all he says but it's more than enough for me to understand what he's talking about.

"You don't know anything." I reply quietly, not even managing to convince myself, never mind Damon. I move away from him slightly and I feel myself start to panic.

My secret - The secret I've tried so, _so_ hard to keep hidden – is finally out. Damon knows. _Oh my god._

"Hey, calm down." His voice coos softly and it's not until then that I realise my breathing has become erratic and I feel the backs of my eyes start to sting.

"No! You can't know." I cry. "No-one is supposed to know."

"Elena, it's okay." He soothes but I shake my head.

"Of course it's not okay, Damon! What is there about this whole situation that's _okay_?" I ask, my voice rising slightly.

God, my emotions are going crazy. I'm shocked. I'm sad. I'm angry. I'm hurt. How the hell did this happen?

"It _is _okay. I can talk to my mom and get her to help your mom. Everything will be fine." He explains gently but my jaw ends up dropping to the floor.

"No! No, you can't tell anyone Damon! _Please_, don't tell anyone."

"But…I can help." He says, obviously confused at my lack of enthusiasm for his offer to 'help me'.

"You want to help me? Then forget what you heard earlier and pretend you don't know anything. That would really help me."

"You have to be kidding." He laughs humourlessly. "How the hell can you expect me to do that, Elena? I can't just forget that you're living with an alcoholic mother!"

Even though I know what he's saying is the truth, the words still sound foreign in my ears. I've never heard them from another person's mouth before.

"You have to!" I yell back. "You shouldn't even know anyway. If you hadn't have eavesdropped on my _private_ conversation, then you wouldn't have to _pretend_ that you didn't know!"

"I'm sorry that I eavesdropped, Elena, honestly I am. But don't expect me to apologise for trying to look out for you because I'm not going to." He growls.

"Why would you want to look out for me anyway?"

"Because I care about you!" He yells and pulls at the ends of his hair in frustration.

"Well don't! I snap. "I don't need you to look out for me. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I have been doing it since my dad walked out!"

"Elena-"

"Save it, Damon!" I hiss before spinning on my heel and heading for the direction of the front door. I reach for the handle and go to pull it open but before I get the chance to, a hand flies past my head and slams on the door with a bang, effectively stopping me from escaping this nightmare.

"Look," He begins calmly. "I get that you're mad at me, but-"

"Mad?" I interrupt and laugh condescendingly before spinning around again so that I'm facing Damon once more. "I'm not mad Damon, I'm _furious! _Not only did you think you had to the right to eavesdrop of my private conversation, but now you're threatening to blab everything to your mommy!"

"Why are you being so stubborn, Elena? I'm trying to help you!" He yells back.

"Well keep it! I don't need your help and I don't want it!"

I reach for the door handle again, this time without Damon trying to stop me and rip the door open, storming over to my car.

"Elena!" He shouts my name. "Wait!"

"Stay the hell away from me!" I hiss.

I jump into my car as fast as possible; zooming out of the Salvatore driveway at what I'm sure is an illegal speed and heading back home.

**A/N: *Ducks under table* Please don't hate me! **

**I hope you didn't find this chapter completely horrible and I apologise for any spelling/grammar mistakes I made. Hopefully I can get my muse back soon and write a better chapter next time!**

**Let me know what you think…**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: I know, I know! Where the hell have I been? I've been a busy little bee this past month and haven't found any time to write. I'm sorry! I haven't given up on this story or any of my others so please don't think that! I literally wrote this whole chapter in 4 hours so if there are mistakes please forgive me. **

**You might want to reread the last few chapters to refresh your memory of the current storyline because it has been **_**that **_**long since I updated. *Hangs head in shame***

EPOV

Groaning loudly into my pillow, I awoke on Saturday morning to bright light flooding my bedroom. The events of yesterday came rushing back to me as soon as I opened my eyes. I can't believe my mom is drinking again, after she _promised_ me she wouldn't. And she didn't even care! She could clearly see how upset I was at finding her drunk again and she didn't care.

And Damon! Who the fuck does he think he is? He had the nerve to eavesdrop of my private conversation and then humiliate me by saying that he was willing to _help_ me. What the hell is Damon going to do? If my mom won't listen to her _daughter_, then why would she listen to Damon? I know he thinks he's God's gift to women, but even he's not that good.

…But I shouldn't have told him to stay away from me either. Even though I'm mad at him, I still want to hang out with him…Maybe even kiss him a little more too….

Urgh! How did this happen? Damon and I were seconds away from kissing yesterday and then my mom walked in completely wasted and everything turned to crap.

Groaning once more, I kicked my covers off my body and stood up from my bed, walking towards my bathroom like some kind of zombie. I quickly showered before wrapping a fluffy white towel around my body and walking over to my bathroom mirror, picking up my toothbrush and brushing my teeth.

What am I going to do about Damon? Should I go over there and apologise?

Wait, no! Why should I apologise, I didn't do anything wrong. It's Damon who's in the wrong.

_He was only trying to help._

But I don't need his help. I've been fine for 17 years without Damon's help. It's not his responsibility to save me.

_He said that he cares about you._

That doesn't give him the right to butt into my life.

_You overreacted._

No, I didn't. I mean, I yelled at him a little and told him to keep away from me, but he deserved it. Right?

Suddenly noticing that I'm glaring at myself in the mirror, I realise that I'm arguing with myself and sigh.

I rinse my mouth out and place my toothbrush back into its container before trotting back into my bedroom and picking out some clothes - Comfy clothes. I find a pair of grey sweats pants and a white tank top. I quickly throw a NYC sweater over the top and brush my hair before going downstairs.

"Morning' Jere." I greet my baby bro when I find him sat at the dining room table, a bowl of cereal placed in front of him.

"Hey 'Lena." He greets back, showing a small smile on his face before shoving a heaped spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

"What do you want to do today?" I ask as I pull a carton of orange juice out of the fridge and pour myself a glass.

"I thought you said you were hanging out with Damon today?" he asks with furrowed eyebrows, giving me a quick glance before looking back down to his cereal.

"I'm not so sure that's a great idea right now…" I mumble.

"Why not?" He asks quietly.

"We had a fight."

"Why?"

"Let's just say that Damon is sticking his nose in things that don't concern him."

"Like what?"

"Jesus Jeremy, what's with the twenty questions?" I snap.

Jeremy's eyes grow wide in surprise before he looks down in shame and fiddles with his hands nervously.

"Sorry."

"No, _I'm_ sorry." I sigh and sit at the table in front of him, taking his hand in mine. "You didn't deserve that. I just feel pissed off right now."

Jeremy nods his head once but I can see that he's dying to ask me 'why?'

"Go ahead." I nod. "Ask me."

"…Why?" He asks hesitantly and I take a deep breath before telling him my problems.

"Yesterday, Damon listened to a private conversation between me and mom. Through said conversation, he found out about mom and her drinking problem."

"What?" Jeremy whispers quietly, clearly not expecting me to say that.

"Anyway, when I went over to his house, which is freaking huge by the way, he offered to help us with mom. Can you believe that?" I scoff.

"Wait, I'm confused. Why is that a bad thing?"

"You're kidding, right? It's none of Damon's business what goes on in our lives."

"Yeah it is."

"How?" I ask him, my eyebrows forming a V on my forehead.

"Because you guys are dating."

"What?" I squeal, the loud noise catching my brother by surprise. "Jeremy, Damon and I are not…_dating_."

"You're not?"

"No!" I protest. "Why would you think that?"

"Because he's always over here and you two are always flirting with each other. It's obvious that you both like each other."

"Jeremy, Damon is always over here because we're working on our science project together, you know that."

"So…you do like each other then?" He always with a small smirk on his face and I realise my mistake. I should have denied Damon and I liking each other first.

"No." I scoff very unconvincingly. "I don't _like_ Damon."

"Sure you don't." Jeremy says with an eye roll and I look at my brother in shock.

"Were…Were you just being sarcastic?"

He shrugs his shoulder before spooning another spoonful of cereal into his mouth, a small smile hiding on his face.

"You seriously need to stop hanging out with Damon." I mumble to my brother, ruffling his hair before running upstairs when I hear my cell phone ringing. I run into my bedroom, shooting across my bed and reaching for my bedside table where I left my phone. I look down at the caller ID and see that Damon is calling me. I hesitate my finger over the _answer_ button for a few seconds before moving across to the _ignore_ button and pressing down.

A few moments later, my phone buzzes signalling a text message.

_From: Douchebag – 'Elena, I'm sorry. Please talk to me?'_

I stare at the message and sigh before hitting the reply button and typing a message back.

_To: Douchebag – 'You have 5 seconds.'_

_From: Douchebag – '5 seconds, really? I don't think that I can compose a text message in 5 seconds…'_

_To: Douchebag – ' Damon!'_

_From: Douchebag – 'Alright, keep your panties on…Or not. ;)'_

_To: Douchebag – 'And time is up. Bye.'_

_From: Douchebag – 'No, wait! I'm kidding. I really am sorry. I swear that I won't say anything to anyone and if you don't want my help, then I won't bring your mom up again. Scouts honour.'_

_To: Douchebag – 'Thank you.'_

_From: Douchebag – 'So…you're not mad at me anymore?'_

_To: Douchebag – 'No, I'm still mad but mostly at myself. I'm sorry for lashing out at you, I understand that you were only trying to help me, but you need to understand that my life is private. No-one knows about my mom, not even Rebekah or Caroline.'_

_From: Douchebag – 'Really? Dumb and dumber don't know?'_

_To: Douchebag – 'Damon! They're my friends.'_

_From: Douchebag – 'Okay! I'll be nice…but don't tell anyone.'_

_To: Douchebag – 'Why? Scared that I'll ruin your badass reputation?'_

_From: Douchebag – 'Hell yeah! Damon Salvatore does not do…nice.'_

_To: Douchebag – 'I know.'_

_From: Douchebag – 'So are you doing anything today?'_

_To: Douchebag – 'Not really, why?'_

_From: Well, since you've forgiven me, how would you like to spend the day with the hottest guy ever?'_

_To: Douchebag – 'OMG! I'd love to spend the day with Zac Efron!'_

_From: Douchebag – 'Your coolness has officially declined at that comment. Congrats.'_

_To: Douchebag – 'Oh, I'm sorry. Did you mean you?'_

_From: Douchebag – 'No, I meant Ryan Gosling.'_

I hate to admit it, but I laughed at that last message. I think it's safe to say that I've forgiven Damon.

_To: Douchebag – 'Oh. I was about to say that I was willing to hang out with you today, but if Ryan Gosling is free…'_

_From: Douchebag – 'Oh, look at that. Ryan just suddenly became busy. I guess you're stuck with me.'_

_To: Douchebag – 'Oh man! That sucks. So, what are we doing today?'_

_From: Douchebag – 'It's a surprise. I'll pick you up in 30 minutes.'_

With a small smile on my face, I placed my phone back on the side and walked over to my cupboard, pulling out more suitable clothes than my sweats and getting ready to spend the day with Damon.

XXX

When Damon picked me up, we both spent 10 minutes sat in his car apologising to each other for yesterday. I told him that I was sorry for lashing out at him and that I wasn't mad, while Damon promised not to bring up my mom and said he wouldn't help me with her unless I asked him to. He then began driving us to our mystery location, music from the radio playing softly.

I kept sneaking glances of Damon from the corner of my eye. His eyes were concentrating on the road while he held a small smile. One hand was gripping the steering wheel, while the other was hanging out of the open window next to him. The plain white T-shirt he was wearing clearly showed how buff he was and his hair was resting in his usual messy-yet-hot- style.

"So, where are we going?" I ask him after a few moments of silence.

"You'll find out soon enough." He replies back, casting me a wide smile before concentrating back on the road making me pout my lips. "Stop pouting."

"How did you know? You weren't even looking at me." I laugh but Damon only shrugs.

I snuggle back into my seat, watching familiar buildings pass by me with curious eyes, trying to figure out where Damon is taking me.

"So, I was talking to Jeremy this morning." I begin and Damon looks at me from the corner of his eye, urging me to continue. "He actually thought that we were dating. Can you believe it? As in us being boyfriend and girlfriend!"

"Don't sound so insulted." Damon scoffs and I immediately stop chuckling. I begin to think that I offended him before he casts me a wide smirk and looks directly at me. "You should feel privileged to be my non-existing girlfriend."

"Of course." I reply with a roll of my eyes.

"I'm serious!" Damon laughs. "You're my first pretend girlfriend."

"Pretend girlfriend? We're not actually- Wait, what?" I stop speaking and look back at him. "You've never had a girlfriend before?"

"Nope."

"What…How?" I ask.

"I know, right. With a face like mine, a body like Adonis and a car like this you would think that I would have had a girlfriend before."

"Oh, that's how..." I say with a teasing smile. "Girls think that you're hot, go to talk to you and then you open your mouth, ruining everything."

"I don't ruin anything." He says with an obvious eye roll. "I can be very sweet when I want to be."

"Sure you can." I chuckle.

"Well what about you?" He asks. "What's your relationship history like?"

"I've had a boyfriend before if that's what you're asking." I tell him. "I was dating this guy when I was 15 that was from the other side of town. It lasted for a few months but one day, he just dumped my ass and that was that. I actually always had a crush on Mason, but we all saw how that turned out."

"Has he spoken to you yet?" He asks. "Since…you know."

"Nope."

"Good. You should stay away from him Elena."

"Trust me, I plan to."

After a few more minutes, Damon pulls up in front of a small lone store in the middle of nowhere. He parks in the empty parking lot and kills the engine.

"Where are we?" I ask and look around.

"About 20 minutes from Mystic Falls."

"And you brought me here why?"

"Because this place has the best ice-cream ever." He says with a shrug and shy smile, almost as if he's hesitant that I'm going to demand him to take me home.

"You brought me to get ice-cream?" I ask and Damon nods. "That's so cute!"

He rolls his eyes, but I catch the smile on his face before he gets out of the car and I do the same. He holds the ice-cream store door open for me and I thank him, taking in the few tables scattered around and the huge glass counter on one side of the store, clearly displaying a range of ice-cream.

"Damon Salvatore!" A woman with a heavy French accent says happily as she steps out of the small room resting behind the counter.

"Annabel!" Damon replies, equally as happy to see the old woman.

"Oh look at you!" She beams. "You get more handsome every time I see you."

I bite my lip at Damon's embarrassed face to stop myself from laughing and smile kindly at the elderly woman.

"And who is this lovely young lady?" She asks Damon while looking at me.

"Anna, this is Elena." He tells her and places his hand on the small of my back sending small tingles up my spine. "Elena, this is Annabel, the owner of the best ice-cream shop in the entire world."

"Oh, is she your girlfriend?" She asks excitedly.

"No-"

"-Yep. Elena's my girlfriend." He says cutting me off and sending me a teasing smile which makes me roll my eyes.

"Oh, _ma chère! _You look so cute together!" She approves.

"We do, don't we." Damon replies, pulling me against the side of his body and placing a quick kiss on my cheek.

"Come." Annabel says, motioning towards the ice-cream counter. "What can I get you?"

I punch Damon lightly in the side as I go to step towards the counter, making him laugh lightly and hold his hands up in mock defence.

I look through the glass covering the ice-cream and try to hide my grimace at some of the flavours.

"Wow, Annabel, you have some really unusual flavours." I say as politely as I can but Annabel only laughs.

"I know!" She agrees. "But you'd be surprised at how popular some of these ice-cream flavours are."

I move my gaze at the variety of ice-creams. There's the classics; vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, toffee, cookies and cream. And then, there's the…no-so-classics; Avocado, garlic, mustard, cinnamon, chili.

After a few minutes of gazing, Damon chooses Chocolate marshmallow while I choose rocky road. Yum.

After quiet arguing, Damon pays for both of the ice-creams even thought I insist that I don't mind paying. He waves me off as if I'm being ridiculous and happily pays Annabel. We take a seat on one of the many free tables and tuck into our ice-creams.

"How do you know Annabel?" I ask Damon after a lick of my rocky road and almost have a foodgasm at the taste of it.

"A few years ago, Klaus and I were driving around and we stumbled upon this place. We've been coming here ever since."

"Huh. Who'd have thought it? Damon Salvatore and Klaus Mikaelson, the baddest boys at Mystic High, like to go on trips to an ice-cream store." I tease.

"Shut up 'Lena." He replies with a smirk, obviously trying not to laugh himself.

We continue to laugh and tease each other, talking about anything and everything with Annabel sometimes joining the conversation. After a quick glance at my phone, I realise that we've been sat talking for nearly 2 hours. After a long goodbye to Annabel and a promise to come and visit her soon, Damon drives me home. He parks at the end of my driveway and walks me to my door. As we reach the porch, I awkwardly pause outside of my front door and turn the look at Damon.

"So…thanks for taking me out. I had fun today." I say.

"Yeah, me too." He smiles. "I'm glad that you're not mad at me anymore."

"Yeah, me too." I reply and feel stupid when I realise that I've copied what Damon just said.

"So, do I get a kiss goodbye?" He asks cheekily.

"And why should you get a kiss goodbye?" I ask and cross my arms over my chest playfully.

"Well, I took you to the most amazing ice-cream store, introduced you to the happiest woman alive, bought you an ice-cream that I know you enjoyed by the noises you were making after every bite and walked you to your door like a true gentleman."

"Is that all?" I tease.

"I think so." He nods.

"Fine." I nod. "You get one kiss."

Damon smirks happily and puckers his lips. I slowly lean in, waiting for Damon to close his eyes and as soon as he does, I quickly redirect my head so that my lips land on Damon's cheek instead of his lips.

"There - One kiss. Bye!"

"No fair!" He whines like a small child. "You said that I'd get a kiss."

"You did get a kiss. It's your fault that you never said where."

"Well, I want another. This time on the lips."

"Sorry, you've already used up your wishes."

"Fine." He says and I see a teasing glint flash in his eyes. "Then I guess I'll just kiss you."

Before I have time to reply, Damon's lips are on mine and he's kissing me. After getting over the sudden shock, I realise that I'm not kissing him back and let my eyes flutter close, moving my lips beneath his.

As the kiss heats up, he gently pushes me back so that my back hits the door and he wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me tightly against him. I bring my hands up to thread through his hair, before softly moving down his neck and resting against his chest, feeling his body shiver slightly at my touch. He pulls my bottom lip between his and nibbles on it lightly, making me gasp.

After a few more moments, we both pull apart to breath and Damon rests his forehead against mine, both of us breathing heavily.

"Now that's a kiss." He whispers, removing his head from mine and staring at my slightly parted and probably swollen lips.

"Yeah." I agree.

He places one more light kiss against my cheek, his lips lingering a few seconds more than necessary before removing his arms from around my waist and taking a step back.

"See you 'Lena." He says, a cocky smirk resting on his face.

"Yeah." I say again, still in shock from the toe-curling kiss I've just received and only watch as Damon walks down my porch steps and towards his car, beeping his horn as a signal goodbye and driving away.

I stay leaning against my front door for a few more seconds before turning around and opening it, stepping inside the hallway and closing it behind me. I find Jeremy resting against the window that looks out onto the porch, his arms folded across his chest and a knowing smile wide across his face.

"Not dating? Yeah right."

**A/N: Well, I hope that this chapter was worth the wait. Let me know what you think.**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: I suck, I know. **

_"I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle in your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend a day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."_

"Jesus, how can you watch this crap?" Damon groans from his place on the couch beside me before I loudly shush him and turn my attention back to the movie playing on his TV. It's currently Friday night and Damon invited me over to his place for a movie night. Unfortunately, our best friends also decided to invite themselves over, making it a foursome rather than a twosome… and I say that in a strictly platonic way.

_"You see! That is just like you, Harry! You say things like that, and you make it impossible for me to hate you! And I hate you, Harry, I really hate you…I hate you…"_

Harry and Sally suddenly kiss and two squeals can be heard throughout the Salvatore household, one belonging to myself and the other my best friend.

"I don't get it." Klaus mumbles and rubs at his forehead. "If she hates him, why is she kissing him?"

"She doesn't hate him, moron." Rebekah explains with an eye roll. "She loves him."

"Then why did she say she hates him?"

"Who cares?" Damon cries to his friend before turning to me with a cute pout. "Please don't make me watch any more chick flicks."

"But we still have to get through the notebook!" I tease, pointing to the DVD resting next to Damon's feet on the coffee table.

"I love that movie!" Klaus squeals and all three of us turn to look at him, Rebekah and I in humour and Damon in disgust. He suddenly notices our stares and he coughs before putting on a very deep voice.

"I mean, the notebook? Fuck no!" He stands away up from the couch and fixes the collar on his shirt. "Now if you'd excuse me, I have manly things to attend to, like scratch my balls and Google porn… Bye!"

He quick walks towards the front door, the three of us watching him until he disappears around the corner and Damon and I jump in fright when Rebekah suddenly yells loudly and runs after him.

"Hey! Don't leave without me, you're my ride home!"

The door slams loudly behind Bekah and I find myself surrounded by silence, my eyes still focused on the now closed door. I turn my gaze away to Damon, who I found has moved a lot closer to me and a slow grin spreads across his lips.

"Alone at last." He smirks and before I have time to think, his lips are on mine in a bruising kiss. I respond immediately and wrap my arms around his neck. He lightly pushes me back on the couch so that I'm nearly horizontal and positions himself on top of me, one hand on my waist, the other tangled in my hair.

"Wow." I say breathlessly when we finally pull apart.

"I've been waiting all night to do that." Damon admits, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear and kissing me lightly on the cheek before letting himself up while I stay lay down on the couch, still attempting to get back my breath. He flattens his plain black t-shirt out from the invisible wrinkles and smiles down at me.

"Dance with me?" He asks suddenly and I frown and stare at him with an are-you-crazy? look.

"What?"

"Dance with me?" He repeats, this time holding a hand out for me to take.

"There's no music." I say slowly, as if talking to a child. He holds up a single finger in front of my face and turns around, picking up his IPod from the coffee table and walking over to the docking station resting in the corner of his gigantic living room. Leave Your Hat On by Tom Jones suddenly plays loudly through the speakers and Damon looks at me sheepishly.

"Whoops." He says before changing the song to a more slow-paced, romantic one and smiles proudly to himself. "There, problem solved. Now get your cute ass over here, Gilbert!"

I laugh and follow Damon's commands, walking over to where he is stood in front of the fireplace and lace my fingers through his. He brings my hands up and wraps them around his own neck before letting go and wrapping his around my waist. We slowly sway to the music, my body becoming hot and it has nothing to do with the fire behind me. Damon rests his forehead against mine and I feel his rapid breaths fan across my face.

"You're so beautiful, 'Lena." He sighs happily and I feel my breath get caught in my throat. I let out a quiet squeak as a reply and Damon chuckles lightly before suddenly grabbing one of my hands and spinning me around. I laugh in surprise and focus on my footing to make sure I don't trip over my own feet.

"Dam-"

I'm cut off from squealing his name by his lips, teeth and tongue as he hungrily kisses me. His teeth nip at my lips before his tongue darts out to soothe the slight sting. I can't hold back a moan when I feel him take my bottom lip between his and suck lightly.

The next thing I know, I'm lay down on the floor, Damon on top of me again for the second time tonight. He rests his body in between my slightly open legs and sucks on my neck, making me claw at his t-shirt clad back in pleasure. Our breathes are in sync as we both breath heavily, the room definitely growing hotter.

He removes his mouth from my neck and raises his head to look me in the eyes.

"Elena…" He groans in a slightly pained voice. "I don't want to stop."

"Then don't." I reply immediately, not even bothering to think about what we're doing. All I know is that I want his lips back on my neck again.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" He asks, his eyes searching mine for any doubt.

"Yes. I want you, so badly."

That's when he snaps. He leans forward and kisses me again, this time giving it everything he has. His hands are moving everywhere, touching me wherever he can; my legs, my hair, my chest. I reach for the hem of his T-shirt and pull it over his head while Damon holds his arms in the air to allow me better access. As soon as the shirt is completely off, I throw it behind me, neither of us caring where it lands and feel every inch of skin he has on offer. After allowing me a moment to ogle, Damon leans back down again and continues to kiss me, moving down my neck once more and nipping at my pulse point, leaving me gasping.

He removes his mouth and leans back onto his knees, reaching for the bottom of my dress and pushing it up slowly, bunching it around my waist to reveal the pink lace underwear underneath. Damon's eyes roam the bottom half of my body before he leans down and kisses the insides of my thighs, his tongue darting out to taste my skin. He continues pushing my dress up, his mouth following behind and kissing every inch of new skin on show. He eventually pulls it all the way off and throws it in the same direction I threw his T-shirt.

His hands explore my half-naked body and I look up at him to find his eyes following his hands, his lips slightly parted as his breathing becomes ragged. He meets my eyes and checks for any resistance against what we're about to do but finds none as I wrap my arms around his bare shoulders and pull him back down into another kiss.

I reach my hands down in between our bodies and pop the metal button open on Damon's jeans. He clumsily kicks his pants off with his legs and feet and I move my hand inside his underwear, feeling for the part of Damon I have yet to see. He moans loudly into my mouth when I reach him and I wrap my hand around his hard penis, pumping up and down gently.

He slides his mouth down my neck until he reaches the top of my breasts and kisses them lightly. I feel his hand reach underneath my back and I hear the small click of my bra clasp opening. He sits up and removes my hand from his boxers, sliding my bra straps down my arms and throwing the item in any direction. His eyes widen at the sight of my naked chest and he palms my breasts gently, while I can't help but notice how perfectly they fit into his hands. Leaning back into me, his mouth travels across my chest before taking a nipple in his mouth and sucking lightly. I gasp and notice my breaths becoming swallower and faster due to Damon's mouth on my body.

After a few moments, he removes my nipple from his mouth and kisses his way down my body, dipping his tongue into my belly button and swirling it around my hips while his fingers slide underneath my panties and he pulls them down my legs, leaving me completely bare before him. He suddenly sits up and takes a moment or two to stare at my body before leaning back down. He grabs one of my legs by the back of the knee and lifts it up so that my foot is resting flat against the rug and my leg is bent before doing the same to the second one.

He kisses the inside of my thighs again and hovers over my centre. I can feel his breath moving over the most sensitive part of my body, causing me to inhale sharply. Damon gives me one last look before closing his eyes and leaning forward and my eyes widen significantly. He licks and sucks at my nub making my fingers pull at his hair and loud moans to come from my mouth, only spurring him on.

When I feel it all becoming too much, I lift mouth away from me and pull him up my body, kissing him again and becoming shocked when I'm able to taste myself on his lips. It's all so… kinky. I slip my hands onto his waist and slid them down into his boxers. Just as I begin to pull them down, Damon quickly places his hands on my mine and pulls away from the kiss.

"Wait!" He groans before sighing loudly. "I don't have a condom."

"It's okay." I say as I finish doing my job and pull his boxers the whole way off. "I'm on the pill."

My eyes widen at the size of him and even though I'm currently lay underneath his naked body, I still find myself blushing.

"See something you like?" He whispers cockily in my ear and meets my eyes with a smirk. I gulp and nod slowly and Damon's smirk gets wider before it disappears completely.

"Elena, are you absolutely sure?" He whispers, brushing the hair away from my face and trailing a finger down my cheek softly.

"Yes." I nod confidently and he smiles an adorable smile.

He slides into me ever so slowly, his eyes meeting mine and I watch as his face contorts in pleasure. He remains completely still as I adjust to his size and once I do, I give him the okay.

He pulls back out gently before pushing back in again. After only a couple more thrusts, I can already feel that tightening in the bottom of my stomach and our groans and moans fill the room. I wrap my arms around Damon's back and begin to move with him. He hooks a hand behind my knee and wraps it around his back so that he can thrust deeper inside of me, making sure to hit my sweet spot every time.

As I begin to reach my high, Damon pulls his head out from where it is resting against my neck and watches as the pleasure creeps across my face, my eyes scrunched shut and my mouth hanging open in a silent scream. That look alone must be enough to make Damon reach his peak because the hand he has in my hair tightens slightly and a loud groan escapes his mouth, which I happily swallow when I kiss him.

He collapses on top of me and I gently move my hand up and down his bare back, stroking the soft, slightly damp skin while we both try to catch our breaths. When we do, he starts to roll off me but I tighten my arms around him so that he can't move.

"Don't" I whisper. "Stay."

So he does.

XXX

"I just don't see why you have to go home?" Damon whines as he drives me home in his car later that evening.

"Because I do." I laugh. "I told my mom that I'd be home tonight. Besides, I have to check on Jere."

"So we'll do that and then I can drive us both back to my house, where we can spend the rest of the night having sexy time."

"Damon!" I laugh.

"What?" He asks innocently as I shake my head.

"You can't just say tha- LOOK OUT!"

Damon slams the brakes on, effectively stopping the car just before we hit a police barrier as we near my house. Looking outside of the car windows, I finally notice the huge crowd of people gathering around, craning their looks to look at something.

"What's going on?" I ask Damon as we both unclip our seatbelts, realising that we aren't able to go any further.

"I don't know." He murmurs, opening his car door and stepping outside.

"Elena!"

I hear my name being called and open the passenger door as my neighbour, Mrs Flowers, runs over to Damon's car.

"Mrs Flowers? What's happening?" I ask and watch her face fall, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"Elena… I'm so sorry…" She whispers and I grow confused.

"Sorry? For what?"

Suddenly, sirens blare down the street and I spot a bright red fire engine speed down the road before coming to a stop… right where my house would be.

I sprint towards my house, ducking under police barriers and not stopping until I see it.

My house is covered in bright, hot flames, black smoke flaring fifty feet into the sky. How the hell did I not see this before?

"Hey!" A police officer yells as two firemen rush past me to get to my house. "You can't be here!"

"That's my house!" I cry. "Oh God, do something! My mom was in there! My brother!"

Oh God. Jeremy.

"JEREMY!" I yell and turn on my heel, planning to run into my house and find my baby brother, but fail when two arms wrap around my waist. "Get off me!"

"Elena, it's me." I hear Damon's voice in my ear and suddenly he's standing in front of me.

"Jeremy! Jeremy's in there Damon! We have to help him!" I sidestep him but he only follows my move and grabs the top of my arms, preventing me from going anywhere.

"Get off me!" I scream as I pound on his chest with my tiny fists. "I need to help my brother!"

"What's your big plan, Elena?" He yells over the roar of the flames. "You're just going to run in a burning building and find your brother, who is not only heavy and bigger than you, but who could be anywhere in there?" He points back to the house and looks at me with sad eyes. "I'm sorry, but it's too dangerous!"

"I need to find him!"

I punch, kick and scratch at his body but he looks completely unfazed as he holds me still. The sound and sight of the flames behind him suddenly become too much and my legs give out underneath me. Damon sets me down gently and pulls me onto his lap, cradling me to his chest as I sob into his shirt.

How did the best night of my life suddenly become the worst?


End file.
